3rd & Salmon Hotel Tower Approved (images)

The Design Commission has approved a 20 story hotel at SW 3rd and Salmon by Ankrom Moisan Architects. The 246′-7″ tall building is being developed by Third & Taylor Development LLC, a partnership between Onder Development and Arthur Mutal. The proposed hotel will have 245 guest rooms, with a rooftop bar and a swimming pool proposed at the 20th floor. The hotel lobby, restaurant and a bar/market are planned for the ground floor, with conference facilities planned for the second floor. One basement level would be used for housekeeping and other back of house functions. No new vehicular parking is proposed.

3rd & Salmon

The project site includes the southern three eighths of the block bound by SW 2nd, Salmon, 3rd and Taylor. The site includes the 1906 Hotel Albion building, which has housed the Lotus Cardroom & Cafe at its ground floor since 1924. The building is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the City’s 1984 Historic Resources Inventory the building was given a Rank III designation [PDF], indicating that it may be eligible for listing in the National Register as part of a Historic District. The rest of the site for the hotel is currently occupied by surface parking.

Located on the northern half of the same block is the 1892 Ancient Order Of United Workmen Temple, which is set to be replaced by a 10 story office building. That project is proceeding as a separate Design Review application, and is not part of the hotel application. The National Register listed Auditorium and Music Hall Building is under separate ownership and is not part of either development.

3rd & Salmon

3rd & Salmon

The building is arranged as 20 L-shaped story tower on the southeast quarter of the block. A lower five story volume would be located on the southwest corner of the block, at a scale more similar to the Auditorium building.

3rd & Salmon

3rd & Salmon

Exterior materials proposed for the 3rd & Salmon hotel include: dark burgundy brick; window wall with vision glass, spandrel glass and medium gray metal panel; bronze metal panel; and structurally glazed glass curtain wall.

3rd & Salmon

3rd & Salmon

3rd & Salmon

3rd & Salmon

3rd & Salmon

3rd & Salmon

The project went before the Design Commission four times in total: once for Design Advice in November 2015; and for Design Review hearings in May, June and July of 2016. At the penultimate hearing the largest concern remaining has about the dark color scheme presented. In response, the applicants chose to change the metal panel color from the darker “Cosmic Gray” to “Medium Gray”. With that change, the Design Commission felt able to approve the project at their July 7th meeting. In conclusion to the Final Findings and Decision by the Design Commission [PDF] it was noted that the applicants had responded to Design Commission concerns:

The design team has resolved the majority of the previously stated concerns. The proposed building has resolved staff’s major ground level concerns by adjusting the northeast corner program and eliminating the request to reduce ground floor windows on the east façade. The building façade articulation has been simplified into two major expressions – the framed glazed curtain wall and the textured window wall. The design of the western volume is now more coherent and the reduction in mechanical louvers on the west façade will not detract from the Auditorium Building will ensure that the new building will not significantly detract from the Auditorium Building. The revised colors of the proposed building are now more compatible with the adjacent Auditorium Building and the proposed shade of gray, which is significantly lighter in tone that that proposed in the second version, is not so dark that it will overwhelm the skyline.

Building permits will need to be obtained before work can begin on the hotel.

Drawings

10 thoughts on “3rd & Salmon Hotel Tower Approved (images)

  1. If I may translate the final decision of the commission: “if the architecture were better you could choose the color of the skin but since this is a lifeless banal spreadsheet of a building you need blend into the skyline.

  2. How are all of these new hotel projects being approved without any new parking? The Pearl and Downtown are already becoming very congested and parking is becoming more and more difficult to find.

    • The zoning code doesn’t require parking for most (any?) uses in the Central City Plan District. As such, minimum parking spaces isn’t something reviewed by the Design Commission or any other body.

      I don’t know the specifics for this hotel, but what I have heard is that many of the new hotels will have valet parking, making use of existing office parking that is under used at night.

  3. Thats just great another building downtown that does not have its own parking. As if there is not a big enough problem with parking downtown already. it seems the design commission really is not up to the job of developing the Portland of tomorrow.

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