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A vacant lot in Southwest Portland will soon be the site of an upscale, European-style hotel.

The Portland Design Commission on Thursday unanimously approved with conditions SERA Architects‘ design for the 13-story, 204-room AC Hotel by Marriott. The 118,000-square-foot boutique hotel will be built at the corner of Southwest Third Avenue and Taylor Street on an empty lot that was long owned by the Portland Development Commission.

Commissioners reacted positively to the simplified brick and aluminum window wall facade and said it was a vast improvement from the one they critiqued last fall during a design advice request hearing for the project. As a condition of approval on Thursday, they requested a couple of revisions. This included replacing dark gray brick stripes on the facade with white brick to complement the cream-colored brick on several buildings nearby, and using glass awnings 鈥� instead of metal ones 鈥� on the ground floor.

The design team leaned on the commission’s recommendations from the fall to revamp the design of the hotel, a joint venture of Marriott and the European AC Hotel brand, SERA principal Kurt Schultz said. The revised design uses fewer materials on the facade, he told the commission. It also features at the corner of Third Avenue and Taylor Street a large oriel window that extends up that side of the building over the main entrance.

鈥淚t really creates this gateway corner that will be lit at night and really become an icon,鈥� Schultz said.

Commissioners’ responses to the corner oriel window were mixed; they noted that the dark brick color on the facade seemed out of place with the rest of the area, which includes buildings dating from the late 1800s. They compromised by asking that the design team use a lighter brick. Along with adding context to the design, the lighter brick would make the corner window feel less detached from the rest of the building, Commissioner Tad Savinar said.

鈥淚 have a problem with the giant thing on the corner, but I think it would calm down with light brick,鈥� he said.

Crews from general contractor and developer Mortenson Construction are scheduled to break ground on the project in July.

Also on Thursday, the commission offered feedback during a design advice hearing for the Hub at Portland, a proposed 15-story, mixed-use building at the corner of Southwest Fourth Avenue and Harrison Street. Plans call for 35,000-square-foot of retail space on the ground floor for a potential grocery store and Portland State University student housing and market-rate apartments on the upper floors.

The design team from Chicago-based Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture requested input on various options for stepping down the building massing and patterns on the facade, but commissioners said it was hard to offer advice based on the information presented. Several said they would have liked to have seen a few renderings that illustrated what the proposed building would look like in context with surrounding structures.

鈥淲e want to understand how this building fits into its place,鈥� Savinar said. 鈥淲e want a good building and we know developers have a pro forma. It’s also our job to make decisions that make sure we don’t devalue our neighborhoods. This is a very difficult package to review. It’s very difficult to make decisions about the massing until I feel like this is a building that’s in a place as opposed to outer space.鈥�

Neighbors of the proposed project testified against the plans on Thursday. They reiterated concerns brought up at a design advice hearing last month that the development would be out of context with the rest of the neighborhood. The building would create too much shade on nearby Pettygrove Park and exacerbate traffic congestion in the area, neighbors testified.

Commissioners agreed with neighborhood concerns that the proposed development as designed would be out of place and not take advantage of being adjacent to the historic Halprin Open Space Sequence. They noted that the building massing would appear overbearing next to two pedestrian-only boulevards.

鈥淭his is kind of alone in its context,” Commission Chairman David Wark said. 鈥淵ou’re next to a national historic district. What we’re looking for is: How does it respond to that?鈥�