Developer is asked to alter hotel

GLENDALE — The Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday asked the developer of the nearly completed 12-story Embassy Suites hotel to fix what many on the city panel viewed as a design flaw near the structure’s helicopter-landing pad.

Original designs for the landing pad called for a decorative framework around the landing pad called a cornice to “integrate the function of the helipad and the supports for the mechanical screen walls beyond,” according to the plans.

Currently, no cornice exists around the landing pad atop the 800 N. Central Ave. hotel, which agency members said was a departure from plans the city had approved in 2002.

“It’s a super designed building, but that heliport is completely off the charts as far as I’m concerned,” Councilman Frank Quintero said.

“That wasn’t what I voted for.”

Bob Kadlec, a former Glendale city employee who oversaw the project’s development from its inception until he retired from the city earlier this year, recently said hotel designers have flouted city regulations by removing the structural element and that “safety netting and emergency staircase which faces Central [Avenue]” were exposed.

On Tuesday, officials with the project’s developer, Kam Sang Company Inc., said the project is still incomplete but admitted to the agency that “mitigating factors occurred during the design process,” Project Manager John Hicks said.

Those factors included the weight of the support elements around the landing pad that would have topped the 47,243-square-foot building and concerns about wind resistance for an architectural piece that would skyrocket above Central Avenue, he said.

“It looks likes it’s of a temporary nature,” Councilman Bob Yousefian said. “It needs to have some kind of covering.”

Agency members told Kam Sang officials about their concern earlier this month after residents complained that the current iteration of the landing pad deviates from the original plan.

Kam Sang President Ronnie Lam answered the agency’s concerns with a vow that his company will construct an element around the landing pad similar to what was originally agreed upon.

“Two weeks ago, when I first heard about this, I directed John [Hicks]. . . to try and go back to the original rendering and make sure it looks like that and is acceptable to all agencies.”

The debate swirled around the city and Kam Sang’s Arcadia office, where Hicks said he went to work on “actively pursuing a means that our structural engineer is going to consider satisfactory so that the structure does remain safe.”

“What I love about architecture is that it invokes emotion and conversation,” Hicks said. “Like it, hate it — it’s always subject to opinion.”

“It’s the kind of conversation I’m concerned about,” Mayor John Drayman said. “There’s the kind that asks, ‘What does that architectural element mean,’ and there’s the kind of conversation of, ‘My God that’s ugly, what were our elected officials thinking?’ One is greatly welcomed, the other is unacceptable.”

In a separate move, the agency approved a slew of administrative resolutions clearing the way for the hotel’s planned September opening.

By a unanimous vote, agency members approved a sign variance for one entrance and one exit sign near the parking lot not included in the original agreement and opted not to vacate a portion of the Burchett Street cul-de-sac as had originally been called for when the project was designed.

If the city had transferred day to day operations of the small portion of Burchett Street, which lines the hotel property, Kam Sang and neighboring business owners would been responsible for the streets maintenance — the ultimate roadblock in approving the variance, Senior Assistant City Atty. Gillian van Muyden said.

“They [Kam Sang] would have taken over maintenance, but . . . part of that maintenance would also go to adjoining properties, and that’s Maguire Properties, who own the property to the south, and my understanding is, that’s an issue that was not going to be easily overcome.”