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The Portland Design Commission on Thursday approved designs for a $10 million remodel to transform the Lloyd District Red Lion Hotel into a boutique hotel.

Commissioners voted 3-1 for approval on the conditions that metal screens on the parking level be doubled up or otherwise made less transparent and planters be added to the east side of the building.

General contractor S.D. Deacon is expected to start construction in September. The remodeled hotel, at 1021 N.E. Grand Ave, is scheduled to reopen under the new name Hotel Eastlund in May 2015.

Plans for the Grand Ventures Hotel LLC project call for extensive renovations. The hotel will gain a new exterior window system, metal fins and canopies, a small retail space, an additional exterior elevator for parking and a stair entry on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Lobby space will be expanded and a roof deck will be reconfigured with an added trellis.

Overall, design commissioners were impressed with the changes.

“You’ve made some incredible moves to transform this,” Commissioner David Wark told the project’s design team from Portland-based Holst Architecture.

When the remodel is complete, the hotel will have a vastly different exterior, said Kevin Valk, a Holst Architecture senior associate. This includes spruced-up storefronts on the ground floor with orange accent squares, planters, trellises and benches. The upper floors will have new white curtain wall systems. Paint will be scraped off to reveal red brick.

“The building has been painted a pretty monotonous peachy beige over the years,” Valk said.

The hotel will be made more pedestrian friendly, he said. Two driveways will be removed to create additional lobby space, and new pedestrian entries will be added. An existing pedestrian entrance on Northeast Holladay Street will be improved and better defined with a canopy.

The ground floor will also include benches integrated into the building facade.

“We’re able to get a little moment where people can stop,” Valk said.

Mesh metal screens will be added to screen the view of hotel visitors’ cars parked on the ground floor. The orange boxes, which will have planters, trellises and LED lights integrated into them, will also distract passersby, Valk said.

“The orange boxes are creating some interest as you walk along the sidewalk and take (notice) away from the parking,” he said.

Design commissioners noted that the mesh parking screening material was too transparent.

“I think the mesh is the Achilles’ heel of the entire project,” Wark said. “It just isn’t enough.”

Commissioner Tad Savinar, who voted against approving the project design, said he would prefer screens that are more visually appealing to passersby.

“I feel the screening is a hardware solution,” he said. “This is a neighborhood that has been continually beat down from an urban design perspective, so this is really important.”

Valk suggested doubling up the mesh screens, and commissioners approved the proposal.

“This is finding that balance of providing eyes on the street and screening the parking,” he said. “It’s a fine line.”

Hotel Eastlund

Location: 1021 N.E. Grand Ave., Portland

Cost: $10 million

Construction start date: September 2014

Anticipated completion date: May 2015

Owner: Grand Ventures Hotel LLC

General contractor: S.D. Deacon