The Hotel Orndorff was the third hotel to occupy this corner facing San Jacinto Plaza. The eleven-story, L-plan block was built by Alzina Allis Orndorff-De Groff, her husband, and son. The dominating street wall planes of blended tawny brick have a second-story cast-stone frame of Spanish Renaissance arches, pilasters, finials, roundels, and foliate ornament. Solid cast-stone balconies float at single windows on the fifth floor, and the top floor’s windows are strung together with continuous delicate lintels and sills. A bold egg-and-dart cornice caps the taught mass.
The use of a Spanish style was pervasive for southwestern hotels during the 1920s. Trost’s scheme demonstrates the office’s competence in modes other than the Chicago School. The hotel, renamed the Hotel Cortez in 1932, operated until 1970. It was restored as an office building in 1984, and additional rehabilitation was carried out in 2011. From the corner of E. Mills Avenue and N. Mesa in front of the hotel, one can see nine surviving Trost and Trost buildings.