Master Builder

Architect-Entrepreneur John Portman has done as much as anyone to turn Atlanta into a boom town--and a good-looking one at that. In the process he has become a multimillionaire. Once a part-time usher in a local moviehouse, he designed and was an initial owner of the $200 million Peachtree Center complex of office buildings, shops, restaurants and hotels, including the spectacular Hyatt Regency Atlanta, that has revived the city's downtown.

Portman is now working his special magic in other urban areas. In San Francisco, he is chief planner and part owner of the $200 million Embarcadero Center rising near the waterfront. In Detroit, Henry Ford II selected him to design Renaissance Center, a $500 million development that should give a new spin to the Motor City. He also has buildings completed or planned in Chicago, Chattanooga, Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Brussels and Paris. Last week the gentle, soft-spoken Portman, 48, announced that he will make his first foray into Manhattan, putting up a $150 million combination hotel-theater that is designed to restore some of the glitter to the tarnished Times Square area.

Portman plans a 54-story extravaganza including a 1,050-seat theater located below ground level; twelve floors of shops, meeting rooms and restaurants; and above it all, a 37-story-high, wide-open "atrium" around which 2,020 rooms will be arrayed. Through the cavernous atrium, twelve spaceship-like glass elevators will zoom to a bronzed-glass rooftop penthouse containing a cocktail lounge and a revolving restaurant.

Construction of the hotel, which will be co-owned by Portman and managed by Edward Carlson's Western International Hotels, is to begin next year, with the opening set for 1977. Says Portman: "Times Square now is only skin-deep--a fac,ade of lights and signs with no depth or substance. I hope that the new hotel complex will speed the entire development of Times Square."

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