Erst Bernhard Lohrmann was born in 1803 in Westfalen. He studied in Göttingen and Berlin where he completed his land surveying diploma in 1827. Lohrmann moved to Helsinki in 1841. As an architect, he represented the turn from the Empire style to the Gothic Revival. He was the head of the Office of the Intendant from 1841 to 1865, and head of National Board of Public Building from 1865 to 1867, after Carl Ludvig Engel.