The Historic & The Sublime...Ron Arad's Visionary Re-Designed Watergate Hotel Stuns
This week, the Watergate Hotel hotel reopens its doors, celebrating the completion of a major architectural refit. London-based practice Ron Arad Architects has designed the key public spaces for this landmark hotel. These are arranged over the ground and lower ground floors, and encompass the entrance foyer and hotel lobby, a reimagining of the whisky bar, casual and fine dining restaurants and hotel bar, main elevator lobby, and external dining terrace.
Originally built by the Italian architect Luigi Moretti between 1960-65, the hotel is a major component in a self-contained mixed-use complex, made famous as the stage for the ‘Watergate’ political scandal, which led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974, and lent the suffix ‘-gate’ to numerous scandals since. The hotel fell into disrepair in later years, and eventually changed hands in 2010, with the clear purpose of refurbishing and reinstating it at the high end of the D.C. hospitality scene.
Ron Arad Architects’ design echoes and complements Moretti’s original curves, and clean modernist palette of white plaster and marble.
Says Ron Arad “I have a confession to make: our initial attraction to this project was actually the Watergate scandal, and it is absolutely fantastic that this starting point led us to work on a project that also has such a great architectural legacy. Working within such a significant period piece, you can’t ignore the context, but at the same time you don’t want to mimic it. Instead you want to create something complementary, but importantly, something new.
Repeating motifs are expressed continuously through the use of curved tubular bronze-patinated brass, polished copper and stainless steel, accompanied by sweeping oak lined walls. This rich palette of metal and timber fashions and re-arranges the circulation route through the building, opening up a fluid sequence of spaces.
Custom-designed rugs and richly upholstered furniture adorn the lobby area. Black granite floors and plastered ceilings are articulated in a playful pattern of polished curves, which help perpetuate reflections of the key design elements.
A discreet polished stainless steel frame supports a sweeping array of 2,450 whisky bottles, which define the whisky bar, and wash it with rich amber light.
The lower dining level enjoys ebony-stained hemlock floors, bespoke chandeliers, fitted furniture, unfurling double-height stainless steel columns and a smoky hand-waxed and polished ceiling. These complement the warm material palette, and enjoy the interplay with the surrounding views of the Potomac River.
Finishes 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. To compliment Moretti, we introduced a brilliant Italian fabricator to the project as a way of completing the cycle.”
Image credits: Ron Arad Architects
