A plan to preserve the brick facade of a century-old building located in the footprint of the proposed $46 million art museum will go before the city's Architectural Review Board on Thursday.

The museum had previously planned to demolish the slender, three-story building at 110 Salem Ave., but at last month's board meeting, architect Randall Stout unveiled an alternative. He proposed to move the building's facade around the corner and reassemble it on Market Street, next to Billy's Ritz.

The board will review an updated version of that proposal and determine whether the move is feasible and meets architectural guidelines for the downtown historic district, which the board oversees.

Although the proposal won unanimous approval by the board last month, along with a request from the Art Museum of Western Virginia to build its new structure in downtown Roanoke, Robert Richert, the board chairman, said that approval is contingent on a satisfactory plan for moving the facade.

"We have approved the plan but now want to see how it will be accomplished," Richert said. "That will involve details of how the facade will be taken apart and put back together."

Among some of the other details the board will discuss at the meeting are the facade's restoration, what pieces can be salvaged, and plans for the first floor of the facade.

Board member and preservationist Alison Blanton said the board is also looking for a commitment to saving as much as possible of the original structure. "I will be disappointed if they come to us with a plan that uses a lot of replication," she said. "We don't want a Disneyland facade."

When pressed for details about the final proposal or if it had changed from the original, Stout, who is based in Los Angeles, and Roanoke architect Ben Motley declined to comment.

"We have been covering all our bases," Stout said. "I don't need to go into detail right now."

The reassembled facade will face Market Street and serve as a mask for the museum's electrical transformer and generator, which will sit behind it in a lot next to Billy's Ritz. During last month's meeting, Stout estimated the cost of the restoration and move at $150,000.

Stout presented the alternative at last month's meeting after learning that some board members had concerns about tearing down the 19th-century building, which formerly housed restaurants called Tony's Place and, more recently, the Lonesome Dove. Blanton said the demolition would amount to puncturing yet another hole in the market area's historic streetscape, and stressed its preservation as crucial to the maintaining the character of district. "Districts are made of buildings that may not be individually significant but cumulatively they create that significance," she said. The building topped the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation's 2004 list of most endangered sites - a list Blanton helped develop as the foundation's president.

Responding to those concerns, Stout and Motley promptly returned to the drawing board before last month's meeting, and within 21 hours, crafted a new proposal, which they unveiled at the meeting to the surprise of many board members.

Board members applauded the last-minute changes and said they were impressed with the architects' efforts and willingness to compromise. Still, many felt the process was rushed. Richert said the movement of the facade was presented to the board without any prior information. "That is one reason we asked them to go back and work on it," he said. The last-minute changes also left a number of questions unanswered.

Appalachian Power, which will install and service the transformer, expressed concerns about access. Todd Burns, a spokesman for the power company, said the plan walls in the transformer between the facade and the museum structure, which will curve around the lot to close the space.

He said the company has since worked out details with the art museum and said the facade relocation plan has passed safety concerns, but would include a modest increase to installation costs and lengthen the time of a power outage.

"If the transformer has to be serviced or replaced, it's going to have to be reached by crane," Burns said. He did not know the exact cost figures.

Business owner John Reburn who lives and works in a building next door to 110 Salem Ave. said he would like to know how the project is going to affect his property. "If I had one complaint it is the lack of communication between the project and the two remaining business owners on the block," he said.

While Reburn describes himself as "pro-museum" and "pro-going forward with the project," he said he had attended the meeting last month and still had many questions, especially since all his utilities are tied to 110 Salem Ave. "I need to know the basics," he said, such as the project's beginning and ending time, whether he will have to vacate, how long he might be without utilities.

In response to Reburn's concerns, Stout said that those kinds of details are "not an issue right now."

"We are trying to get a plan together and when we get a plan together, we will deal with the consequences of it," Stout said.

The art museum is scheduled to break ground Sept. 10.