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The proposed location for a plaza on the site of the planned $235 million headquarters hotel received a lukewarm response from the Portland Design Commission during a design advice hearing on Thursday.

Commissioners discouraged the project team from placing a plaza at the corner of Northeast Holladay Street and heavily trafficked Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, near the Oregon Convention Center. Instead, they recommended a more creative approach to meeting a city requirement to provide public open space and access through the superblock site.

鈥淚 feel like putting the plaza on MLK did a lot of favors for other things, except the plaza itself,鈥� Design Commission Chairwoman Guenevere Millius said. 鈥淏y itself and for the hotel, it’s a tough condition because it’s up against MLK. Instead of trying to chomp all that (plaza) space together, how can you wrap that space around the building and create favorable space for the hotel?鈥�

At Thursday’s hearing, commissioners did not discuss the design of the anticipated 19- to 21-story, 600-room, 450,000-square-foot Hyatt Hotels Corp. building. Their feedback focused on the hotel site, bounded by Northeast Holladay Street, Multnomah Street, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Second Avenue.

The project’s developer, Minneapolis-based Mortenson Development, and designers Elness Swenson Graham Architects, also of Minneapolis, Portland-based Ankrom Moisan Architects and Portland-based landscape architecture firm Mayer/Reed sought Design Commission advice on their preferred plaza location.

鈥淲e hope as a conclusion to this that we get consensus on the plaza location,鈥� Mortenson Development Vice President Tom Lander told the commission.

The design team identified five options for placement of an approximately 4,000-square-foot plaza, but focused its presentation to commissioners on the proposed location at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Holladay Street. Placement at that intersection would help connect the hotel to the adjacent Convention Center MAX station, one of the busier light rail stops outside downtown, Ankrom Moisan senior associate Carolyn Forsyth said. It also would tie into an existing plaza across Holladay Street in front of the convention center, she said.

鈥淭he design team quickly realized how important that corner is,鈥� Forsyth said.

The hotel lobby, restaurant and bar would be located adjacent to the plaza, Elness Swenson Graham Architects design principal Trace Jacques said.

鈥淚 see a lot of opportunity for seamless experience between the indoor and outdoor environments,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here’s just a multitude of opportunities to enhance the pedestrian experience.鈥�

Mayer/Reed partner Carol Mayer-Reed told the commission she is also working on a project to improve the convention center plaza. She recommended building additional plaza space across Holladay Street at the headquarters hotel site to further enhance an area visited by many people from outside Portland.

鈥淲e’ve studied other options and they frankly don’t work as well,鈥� Mayer-Reed said. 鈥淟inking this plaza to the surrounding neighborhood 鈥� this is a really great place to do that. The plaza in this location allows more generous space. It’s really a gracious way to welcome guests to our city.鈥�

She acknowledged that the convention center plaza is not used frequently because of heavy traffic on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Design commissioners expressed worries that a headquarters hotel plaza across the street would suffer from the same problem.

鈥淚’m just not sure MLK is the right place for a big public plaza,鈥� Commissioner David Wark said.

Commissioner Tad Savinar said he needed to know more about the plaza design before offering advice to the project team.

鈥淚 can’t tell you where to put it because I don’t know what it is,鈥� he said.

Millius encouraged the design team to think beyond building a plaza to break up the superblock development at the pedestrian level.

鈥淭hat’s the programming challenge for you,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s not where do I fit this (plaza); it’s how do I make this space great.鈥�