With the Portland Design Commission‘s conditional approval of a project to build a 20-story hotel at 930 S.W. Third Ave., there is no doubt that the 110-year-old Hotel Albion at the site will be demolished. However, parts of it could be saved.

One of the conditions for approval given at a hearing on Thursday is that any usable materials from the longtime home of the Lotus Cardroom and Café be salvaged for reuse.

Other conditions are that beveled bronze metal accents on the building be composite metal panels, and that city staffers approve any changes (such as elimination) to the planned green wall or green roof.

At the previous hearing for the project, commissioners were chiefly concerned with the color of the building; they believed that it would be too dark for Portland’s skyline. After brief discussion on Thursday, commissioners seemed satisfied with Ankrom Moisan principal Michael Great’s solution to use a light gray instead of dark gray or burgundy for the formed metal panels on the exterior.

The color will also be more variable since it will have a metal flake mica coating, Great said.

“It changes quite a bit with changes in lighting,” he said.

Commissioners were also concerned previously with plans for dark-tinted windows, but Great said the glazing had been revised to 44 percent of reflectiveness and window glass will be clear as opposed to tinted. Spandrel glass will be used in window wells, he added.

Plans call for the green roof and a slanted green wall to connect the 225-room hotel to an adjoining three-story commercial building.

“We had another development with a green wall that’s half dead and raised some concerns,” Commissioner Tad Savinar said.

Great said it would be hard to comment on a comparison without knowing specifics of the wall referenced by Savinar.

At the previous hearing, commissioners expressed concerns with the composition of the hotel tower and how it would relate to the historic Auditorium Building next to the site.

Great said the design had been “tweaked” slightly, but that was not an issue at the meeting.

“We had questions last time about the composition of the tower, but I am content with the composition of the tower,” Commissioner Julie Livingston said.

The vote was 3-0; Commission Chairman David Wark and Savinar abstained.

Design advice given for county courthouse

Also on Thursday, the Design Commission held a second design advice hearing for the new 17-story Multnomah County Courthouse planned at the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge.

At the previous hearing in early May, commissioners expressed concern about a lack of active use at the ground-floor level; changes needed to be made, they said.

But after testimony Thursday from Multnomah County Presiding Judge Nan Waller and Barbara Marcillle, trial court administrator, the commissioners agreed that security concerns outweighed the pedestrian experience.

“They both testified in regard to operations and security concerns, that we are program driven from having a sally port and (prisoner) holding area on the ground floor,” said J.D. Deschamps, the county’s senior project manager for the new courthouse.

Deschamps said a key part of the design is that all courtrooms, jury assembly rooms and even areas where people pay tickets will face windows with views of Mount Hood.

“I think we’re going in the right direction,” he said. “We’re hearing them and they’re hearing us and we’re making progress.”

The first design review hearing for the project is scheduled for October.

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The design for a 230-foot-tall hotel and an adjoining three-story building to replace the 110-year-old Hotel Albion will have to come back before the Portland Design Commission after a litany of problems was listed by city staffers. The next date for the project‘s review will be June 16.

The Hotel Albion, which currently houses the Lotus Cardroom & Café on its first floor, is targeted for demolition to accommodate new construction. The development also will be built upon a parking lot due east of the Hotel Albion.

Ankrom Moisan Architects is designing the 20-story hotel with 225 rooms and the three-story building with restaurants and retail space. The three-story building will have a green roof that slopes at an angle to become a green wall extending two floors down to the skylighted, all-glass primary entrance on Southwest Salmon Street. A secondary entrance on Southwest Second Avenue will lead to a rooftop bar with terraces and a shallow pool.

Problems cited by city planner Hillary Adam include: working out a fire egress for a proposed 10-story building next door to the site at 930 S.W. Third Ave., determining an appropriate location for a 25-foot-by-40-foot transformer vault, increasing glazing at the northeast corner, increasing cohesion of the tower volume, and adding details on how laser-cut metal screening will connect to the curtain wall.

Also, the new building should “be more deferential” to the adjacent historic Auditorium Building, Adam said, such as by simplifying patterns.

Planned exterior materials include iron spot brick, dark and light gray metal panels, dark gray spandrel glass, glass curtain wall and laser cut metal screen, which some commissioners said was too complicated. They also balked at vertical bands of light proposed for the building’s sides, and asked that renderings be clearer.

“When you come back make it really clear what is glass and what is metal,” Commissioner Tad Savinar said.

Savinar also read comments from Commission Chairman David Wark, who could not attend the meeting.

Although the proposed massing is acceptable, Wark stated, materials selection is overly complicated with “much work to do on lower floors and how they relate to the historic building.” He also expressed disappointment with the overall composition and said the angled roof green wall “feels forced.”

Southwest Market Street apartments

The commission also held an advice hearing for a proposed 14-story residential building at 1133 S.W. Market St. SERA Architects has designed the stucco building to hold 146 mid-priced units geared toward workers and Portland State University students and staffers.

Kurt Schultz of SERA said parking had been added since the previous advice hearing. Plans call for 21 mechanical vehicle parking spaces and 17 bike parking spaces.

Approximately 12 apartment units are planned per floor, Schultz said, and anticipated amenities include a penthouse clubroom and fitness room, a full eco-roof and a 1,500-square-foot communal roof terrace with tables and seating.

The design team has met with the Regional Arts and Culture Council to discuss a possible mural or other artwork being installed in the lobby, he added.

The proposal for retail space on the ground floor was a concern for some neighborhood groups, Schultz said, so the design team is looking at possible live-work arrangements.

But Commissioner Julie Livingston said that apartment units at grade level would not work in that neighborhood, which she said is at the low end of the economic scale.

“There are a lot of reasons not to have this type of apartment at grade,” she said. “It is not something I could support because of safety issues.”

After making other suggestions, including Juliette windows, the commission set June 2 for the project’s next hearing.

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On a recent weekday afternoon, the Lotus Cardroom and Café in downtown Portland was bustling. Jazz flowed from the speakers. People in business attire huddled in wooden booths, chatting and eating their lunch. Others sat at the bar, sipping cocktails.

The Lotus, established in 1924, is both a modern restaurant and a throwback.

“I like the wood,” said Mischa Seablom, after finishing her lunch. “It feels comfortable and dark and warm and inviting. There’s also a feeling of privacy. You can have an intimate connection with someone if you want to, or just a nice meal, or a drink after work.”

However, the Lotus, now operating at 932 S.W. Third Ave., could soon need a new home. Ankrom Moisan Architects in September discussed with the Bureau of Development Services the possibility of a full-block development at Southwest Third Avenue and Taylor Street. The project could include a new building 19 to 20 stories with a boutique hotel and 100,000 square feet of office space, and 43 to 100 parking spaces.

John Plew, the Lotus’ owner, has been in contact with Eugene-based House of Gold Inc., which owns 7/8 of the block bound by Southwest Second and Third avenues, and Salmon Taylor streets. Plew said that he was told that nothing is official yet, but the project apparently is moving forward. If so, the Lotus’ space, the Good Earth Café building and a parking garage on Taylor Street would be demolished.

Since purchasing the Lotus 25 years ago, Plew has known that there was a possibility of the block being redeveloped. Now he has mixed feelings about it.

“It’s tough,” he said. “But I’m excited that there’s some development going on downtown because it’s been some time. I’m mixed. I’m excited that downtown is changing. But if we owned the building, we probably wouldn’t be doing anything.”

Plew has heard whispers that following redevelopment, the Lotus may be asked to return to the block. He also is looking at perhaps moving the Lotus to central downtown or the Pearl District. A historic building would be ideal because Plew wants to keep the Lotus’ main, 30-foot wooden bar and perhaps the wooden bar in the cardroom.

“We’d want to try to replicate what we have now,” he said. “We would want to find a new home that allows us to recreate an historical feeling, American bar and grill like it is now.”

Even if a new home was found for the Lotus, the original joint would be missed if it were demolished.

“It would be a loss,” Seablom said. “It’s not shocking. It’s not surprising. But it would be very disappointing.”

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