Los Altos Town Crier » New two-story office building to replace Lyons’s restaurant

By Clyde Noel

$Image from article New two-story office building to replace Lyons\'s restaurant$
Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier

Town Crier Correspondent

A new office building planned for the El Camino Corridor in Los Altos means the former Lyon’s Restaurant at 4300 El Camino Real is scheduled to be torn down.

The development is the latest in a slew of building taking place these days on the Los Altos side of El Camino Real. The new office building will be next to a Marriott Courtyard Hotel project presently under construction. A Marriott Residence Inn also is under construction behind a new office building leased by Rambus. Additional office buildings are planned for the former El Torito and Red Lobster restaurant sites.

The Los Altos City Council approved the office building project May 15. It will be a 25,070-square-foot, two-story structure with an 83-space underground parking garage. The under-level parking garage will be accessed by a ramp.

“The building was designed for professional use,” said developer Roger Burnell, a Los Altos Hills resident. “We are not looking for the dot-com type of businesses. We’re interested in businesses that have stability.”

Burnell said the former Lyon’s restaurant building will be torn down on June 15. By the end of July, the piles will be in place and in September the steel structure should be taking shape. Completion is set for May 2002.

“The design philosophy for the project evolved from a combination of local influences including the best business building designs we could identify in Los Altos,” Burnell said. “It will also have an appropriate ambiance, since adjoining the building are two hotels: Crowne Plaza Cabana and Marriott Courtyard.

The building has breezed through city channels with relatively little opposition. The Architectural & Site Control Committee reviewed the project at its March 21 meeting and approved it, 3-0.

Several neighbors addressed the committee about the trash and the line of sight from the second-story windows. Burnell addressed neighbors’ concerns and the project was forwarded to the planning commission, where it was passed 5-0.

In staff findings to the planning commission and council, the proposed project complies with the requirements of the city’s zoning ordinance.

Possibly complicating construction plans, Burnell said, are Santa Clara Valley Water District plans to rebuild an Adobe Creek culvert near the site, beginning next April.