The Fairmont Washington, D.C.

The Fairmont Washington, D.C.
General information
Location	United States
Address	Washington, D.C.
Coordinates	38°54′21″N 77°03′06″W / 38.905719°N 77.051614°W / 38.905719; -77.051614Coordinates: 38°54′21″N 77°03′06″W / 38.905719°N 77.051614°W / 38.905719; -77.051614
Opening	December 1985 (structure); October 2002 (Fairmont brand)
Cost	$65 million
Owner	Cadbridge Investors LLP
Management	Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Height	107 feet (33 m)
Technical details
Floor count	10 (9 above-ground, 1 below-ground)
Design and construction
Architect	Vlastimil Koubek
Developer	Oliver Carr Company and Westin Hotels
Other information
Number of rooms	415 rooms (inclusive of suites)
Number of suites	30
Number of restaurants	1
Website
www.fairmont.com/washington

The Fairmont Washington, D.C. is a luxury Postmodernist-style hotel located at 2401 M Street NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The structure, in the West End neighborhood of the city, opened in December 1985 as The Westin Hotel. In December 1989, Westin sold the hotel to All Nippon Airways, which operated it as the ANA Hotel. Lowe Enterprises purchased the hotel in October 1998, and renamed it the Washington Monarch Hotel. A $12 million renovation followed in 1999. Lowe Enterprises sold the hotel to Legacy Hotels Real Estate Investment Trust in October 2002, and Legacy contracted with Fairmont Hotels and Resorts to manage the hotel. The hotel was renamed The Fairmont Washington, D.C. Legacy was itself purchased by Cadbridge Investors in July 2007 and the hotel sold to MetLife in 2014, although the property remained branded a Fairmont.

The Fairmont Washington, D.C. has a four-diamond rating from the AAA.

Constructing the hotel

Construction

By the 1960s, Washington, D.C.'s West End neighborhood was a decaying area of Victorian townhouses and abandoned light industrial sites.^[1] In 1974, the city significantly revised its zoning regulations. Among the changes, the city treated hotels the same as residential housing, which spurred a hotel construction boom.^[2]

In 1983, the Oliver Carr Company, one of the D.C. area's largest real estate development companies, initiated construction on a new hotel on the northeast corner of 24th and M Street NW in Washington, D.C.^[3][4] The development, a 416-room^[5] structure estimated to cost $65 million^{[6][lower-alpha 1][3]} was designed by local architect Vlastimil Koubek.^[7][8] Westin Hotels financed the project.^[6]

The hotel, built by Clark Construction^[4] and its subsidiary George Hyman Construction Co.^[9] was well under way by January 1984.^[1] The hotel opened in December 1985.^[2][10] Construction of the hotel helped complete a rapid transformation of the neighborhood that began in 1983.^[11] For a time, the intersection of 24th and M Streets NW was known as "Hotel Corner",^[2][11] because three new hotels existed here: The Grand Hotel on the southeast corner (originally known as The Regent, finished in October 1984), the Park Hyatt Washington on the northeast corner, and Carr's Westin on the northwest corner.^[11]

Critical assessment

A Bentley S2 at Fairmont Hotel

The 10-story Westin had an exterior facade of glazed brick, granite, and limestone, and a copper covered roof.^[11] As required by local zoning regulations, a public space existed at the main entrance.^[1] The facade was divided into a base, middle section, and crown, and all the exterior windows featured pediments with slightly projecting bays.^[8] The interiors were designed by Sarah Tomerlin Lee. "[We] designed the Westin with the inspiration of modern Washington gardens and its big sky...," she said.^[12] The lobby featured a three-tiered Italianate fountain surrounded by a large garden, and a 10-by-15-foot (3.0 by 4.6 m), $40,000 17th-century Flemish. A 185-seat amphitheater occupied the below-ground floor, while the ninth floor was "secure floor"—meaning it could be isolated from the rest of the hotel for the security of diplomatic or high-security guests. The Presidential Suite on the ninth floor featured three bathrooms, a Federalist récamier sofa, a Second Empire carved mahogany stool, portraits of George and Martha Washington, and a collection of antique hand fans. The public spaces of the hotel were decorated with paintings of flowers and First Ladies, and the walls and floor of each guest room were marble. The hotel's below-ground level also featured a swimming pool, fitness center, two squash courts, an aerobics area, a steam room, two massage rooms, two tanning beds, and a special stairway to allow joggers to access the street from the locker rooms without going through the lobby.^[11] Meeting space totaled 29,000 square feet (2,700 m²), and the fitness center 17,500 square feet (1,630 m²).^[13]

Benjamin Forgey, architectural critic for The Washington Post, felt the Postmodern architecture of the building was a mixed bag, "a firm arriving late at the postmodernist banquet and not digesting it well."^[8] He called Koubek's design "squished classical".^[7] On the whole, it was much better than the "dreary alternative of...the K Street office phalanx."^[8] Forgey felt the architectural details were not well integrated into a coherent whole. But some details worked well, such as the three-paned windows with projecting bays. The interior design was much more impressive, he concluded, calling it "a genuinely active, light-filled space." He was critical of the overly eclectic decorative arts, and the Disneyesque courtyard restaurant.^[8]

Hotel history

The 416-room Westin competed directly with the 263-room Grand Hotel directly across the street,^[11] whose rates were initially about the same as the Westin's.^[2] Other important competitors were the Hay–Adams Hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Massachusetts Avenue NW, and the Four Seasons Washington. The Westin's primary customer was the business traveler with an expense account and small meetings for corporate or governmental executives,^[11] while its secondary customer were convention-goers seeking a more upscale hotel.^[3]

On December 29, 1989, Westin sold the hotel to All Nippon Airways for $100 million^[14] or $110 million^[15] (sources vary). Although the hotel had struggled financially at first, in 1988 and 1989 Westin said the hotel had exceeded company revenue goals and had an occupancy rate higher than average for the D.C. area. Westin agreed to continue managing the hotel, which would be rebranded as the ANA Hotel.^[6] In 1996, Westin took over management of The Grand Hotel, rebranding it The Westin Georgetown.^[14] In 1988, Marriott International considered buying the ANA Hotel as part of a wider corporate buyout, but no deal was ever concluded.^[16] As the ANA Hotel, the hotel was considered one of Washington, D.C.'s premier hotels.^[15]

In late Sepatember 1998, Lowe Enterprises, a real estate development and holding firm based in California, purchased the ANA Hotel and another ANA property in San Francisco for $270 million. Unidentified local real estate experts quoted by The Washington Post said the ANA Hotel in D.C. probably sold for just $87 million. Lowe Enterprises hired Destination Hotels & Resorts to manage the hotel, which it rebranded as the Washington Monarch Hotel.^[15] Lowe Enterprises also announced a plan for a $12 million renovation of the Monarch,^[17] to focus on guest rooms, the meeting space, the auditorium, and the lobby.^[15] The renovation, overseen by Wilson & Associates of New York City, introduced a new gold, green, and burgundy color scheme to the public spaces and guest rooms. The auditorium received a new sound system and custom-made mahogany desks with stained millwork, and two pendant chandeliers made of brass and alabaster were added to the ballroom. Guest room bathrooms were refurbished with Botticino marble from Italy, and all guest rooms upgraded to the latest telecommunications standards.^[18]

Fairmont Hotel

Fairmont Hotels had long wanted to enter the Washington, D.C., hotel market. In 1983, the hotel chain was picked to run the four-star Willard InterContinental Washington, but the deal fell through and a different chain was chosen.^[19] In 1989, Western Development Corp. was developing The Portals, five large new high-rise structures located in an area bounded by 12th Street SW, D Street SW, Maine Avenue SW, and 14th Street SW. Western brought in Fairmont as a co-developer of one of these structures, which was intended to be a five-star luxury hotel.^[20] The new Fairmnunt Hotel was anticipated to open in 1991,^[21] but no hotel was built. City planners were still hopeful, however, and as late as 1993 were still predicting that a Fairmont Hotel would open at The Portals by 1995.^[22] Western's deal with Fairmont eventually fell apart. In 2002, construction on the Mandarin Oriental, Washington, D.C. began on the site, and the new hotel opened in 2004.

In October 2002, Lowe Enterprises sold the Washington Monarch Hotel to Legacy Hotels Real Estate Investment Trust for $145 million^[13][23] Legacy hired Fairmont Hotels and Resorts to manage the property, and rebranded the hotel as The Fairmont Washington, D.C.^[23][24] Fairmont said some rooms would be converted into ultra-luxurious "Fairmont Gold" rooms. Guests in these rooms would receive private check-in, exclusive concierge services, and additional and upgraded amenities. The Fairmont Washington was the first "Fairmont Gold" hotel in the United States.^[13]

Five years later, in July 2007, Legacy was acquired by LGY Acquisition. LGY Acquisition was itself a holding company formed by Cadbridge Investors and InnVest Real Estate Investment Trust. LGY Acquisition said that title to the Fairmont hotel properties would be turned over to with Cadbridge Investors, while the remainder of Legacy's hotel properties would be given to InnVest.^{[25][26][lower-alpha 2][25]}

Cadbridge Investors sold the Fairmont in December 2014 to MetLife for $180 million. MetLife said it would retain Fairmont Hotels and Resorts as the property's manager.^[27]

Rating

The AAA gave the hotel four diamonds out of five in 1985. The hotel has maintained that rating every year, and received four diamonds again for 2016.^[28] Forbes Travel Guide (formerly known as Mobil Guide) declined to rank the hotel as five or four stars, or as "recommended".^[29]

References

Notes

Citations

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fairmont Hotel (Washington, D.C.).

• Official website