A proposed addition to east end of the Lloyd Center has returned in front of the Design Commission for a second Design Advice hearing. The project is being designed by LDA Design Group of Burbank, California, with landscape architects 505 Design. The project will include the renovation and remodel of the lower two floors of the east anchor building currently occupied by Sears, for multi-tenant retail / office. At the third level the building will include a new 14 screen theater.
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The existing anchor building was built for JCPenney in 1960, and then later expanded by Sears. The sale of the Sears building to the owners of the larger Lloyd Center was first reported by the Oregonian in November 2016.
The theater addition is one of a number of ongoing remodel projects at the Lloyd Center, including the new entry and plaza and the west anchor remodel at the former Nordstrom location. The new theaters will replace the existing cinema and associated parking, which are being displaced by the 1510 NE Multnomah and 1400 NE Multnomah developments respectively.
The new theater will have direct access from NE Multnomah St via a new stair and elevator structures, leading the fourth level of the existing parking garage. A covered walkway will connect the theater to the office level of the mall. At the corner of NE 15th and Multnomah a standalone retail space of approximately 9,800 sq ft is proposed.
The existing private drive on alignment with NE 15th Avenue will remain, with the parking re-configured as angled parking to serve the Lloyd Center and the 1510 NE Multnomah development to the north. An original entrance to the mall, adjacent to Marshalls at the second level, will be reopened.
The east anchor remodel went before the Design Commission on June 8th, following an earlier design advice hearing held in April 2017. Revisions made since the first hearing include increasing the amount of ground floor retail space fronting onto NE Multnomah St, an increase to the amount of glazing facing the NE 15th Ave private st, and a more sculpted facade. The Commission welcomed the ground level changes, though continued to push for a pedestrian oriented entrance from NE Multnomah St. Much of the discussion focused on the exterior skin of the building, conceptually shown as a “panelized modular wall system” in the elevations.
In order to gain approval the project will be required to go through a Type III Design Review.
Drawings
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- Plan – Site
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- Plan – Level 1 (Multnomah)
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- Plan – Level 2 (Halsey)
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- Plan – Level 3 (Office)
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- Elevation – East
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- Elevations – South
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- Elevations – West
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- Elevation – North
That elevator entry at the ground level is poorly thought out. First, it creates a space hidden from the street, where undesirable folks might hang out. Second, you don’t see anything but blank walls from the street, especially when approaching from the east. I guess the designers presume that everyone accessing these elevators will be approaching from within that first floor garage, not the sidewalk. But even from the garage, it’s an uninviting, unnecessarily enclosed space. Flip the elevators so they face east or south, and build a glass lobby around them, making a visible presence from Multnomah. They’ll have to get creative to make the elevator lobby obvious to the garage users.
Wait a minute. They have done what i suggested, at least on the renderings. It’s the first floor plan that still shows the hidden elevator entrance. I guess we should hope the plan is wrong and the renderings are right (shouldn’t it work the other way, though?).
I still think that either the two-way drive or the driveway onto Multnomah should be eliminated. Only one is needed to provide the required circulation. While I generally prefer fewer driveways, the turning needs of loading vehicles probably means it makes more sense to keep the driveway and remove the east/west drive connecting the loading area to the parking garage. This would also allow for a much stronger connection between Multnomah and the mall entry (in fact, I wonder if it would allow them to extend the mall entry out all the way to Multnomah and the elevator banks?). I really don’t see any value in keeping the east-west vehicle circulation if all of the proposed new parking in this addition is now gone; why would there be any need for mall-goers or personal vehicles to enter the loading/service area? Better to keep the two circulatory patterns separate and distinct.
And this is supposed to be an improvement over what’s there now ??
Agreed. That façade is ugly as sin!
Tearing down a theater to build one across the street?
This looks better suited for an orange county mall. Nothing very interesting about the design. Instead of just fitting the mall it should try to elevate it.