London-based Ron Arad Architects in collaboration with Euro Capital Properties is conducting a $125 million renovation of the Watergate Hotel, with plans to open this fall.
Originally designed by Italian architect Luigi Moretti in the 1960s, the project will center on a bold midcentury modern redesign of the hotel lobby, whiskey bar, and restaurant, featuring Italian-inspired furnishings custom designed by Ron Arad.
“We have tried to enhance Moretti’s original curves using our own, while at the same time influencing the anticipated flow of people through the spaces,” says designer Ron Arad. “To honor Moretti, we introduced a brilliant Italian fabricator to the project as a way of completing the cycle.”
The lobby will feature floor-to-ceiling windows with Potomac River views, large chandeliers, colorful upholstered furniture, custom loomed rugs, and sculptural metal work, such as a dramatic wall of hand-patinated brass tubes from which a 46-foot long brass reception desk will unfurl as the focal point.
In addition, the lobby-located whiskey bar will feature a spherical art sculpture made from 2,500 bronze-illuminated whiskey bottles and a custom-designed rug with song lyrics woven into it referencing the bar’s whiskey selection.
A new double-height space carved out of the building will create two new restaurants positioned under a black-polished plaster ceiling with eight large spiral chandeliers and informed by a warm red and bronze palette.
Shades of white, gray and camel complement dark wood furnishings in the 337-key hotel’s residentially inspired rooms. Five diplomat suites and two presidential suites will include dark wood floors in a basket-weave pattern, seating in blue and yellow shades, a solid walnut dining table with polished bronze legs, and living room fireplaces.
Additional amenities will include more than 27,000 square feet of waterfront meeting and event space, a newly designed spa, an indoor pool original to the property, and a fitness center.
Euro Capital Properties is also working with locally based Commission of Fine Arts and the Parks Service to restore the property’s original landscape design.
