Thompson Hotels arrives in the US capital, with Parts and Labor Design devising a scheme that honours the city’s maritime past, writes Alia Akkam.
Like District Wharf, the buzzy waterfront development a 10-minute drive west, Navy Yard in southeast Washington – its namesake the historic United States Navy shipyard and ordnance plant established in 1799 – is booming. Consider The Yards, a 42-acre mixed-use complex on the Anacostia River, situated between the landmark naval facility and the ballpark of Major League Baseball team, the Washington Nationals. Packed with restaurants, shops and upscale residences, it exemplifies the American capital’s glittering growth in recent years. It is here that Thompson Hotels, now part of Hyatt’s brand portfolio, has opened the district’s first full-service, luxury hotel.
Although the 225-key Thompson Washington DC is housed in a brand new 11-storey building, the local office of Studios Architecture ensured that the richly textured iron spot face brick and metal façade, dominated by large factory-style windows, organically blends in with the industrial surroundings. Inside, Parts and Labor Design, the New York-based studio that also completed the interiors for Thompson Nashville in 2016, reinforces this nostalgic maritime narrative with a delicate hand.
At the reception desk, guests are greeted by a striking abacus-inspired art piece. The design firm’s own creation, it fuses honed Breccia Capraia marble, nautical rope, stained oak detailing and slender metal attachments finished in bespoke tarnished silver satin. According to Jeremy Levitt, co-founder and Partner at Parts and Labor Design, it’s a contemporary, quiet allusion to the notion of mapping your course; a primitive approach to navigation.
More rope, incorporated into tactile lighting fixtures, melds with weathered wood and glass partitions in the lobby. The convivial Thompson Bar Room – increasingly the domain of political movers and shakers given the hotel’s proximity to the United States Capitol – is the centrepiece of the space, encapsulating the design team’s mission of forming an open, energising social hub. Faced with a black plaster finish and topped with the same stone that graces the front-desk art, it’s “a sculptural element, with shelves that protrude and are reminiscent of a mast,” says Levitt.
Travelling up through the building, the nautical references become more influential, points out Parts and Labor’s Design Director Danu Kennedy, noting the sconces and grid-like patterned carpets in the corridors that pave the way to the guestrooms. Residential in feel, they call to mind elegant cabins, especially the suites, their entries adorned with slim, oval, ribbed glass panels. Headboards covered in wool bouclé and plume-hued leather, fabrics from Carnegie, sofas upholstered by Tiger Leather and bathtubs featuring cool Brazilian white avalanche marble and green onyx complement more of the studio’s custom-designed furniture and lighting. Two built-in, dark-stained oak nightstands flaunting understated curves, for instance, are sturdy and grounded as they would be on a floating vessel, while the clever fold-down walnut desks planted in cosy nooks hint at a stateroom’s penchant for storage-saving stowage rituals.
Crowning the hotel is rooftop bar Anchovy Social, which because of its sightlines to the river captured through floor-to-ceiling windows, was an opportunity to emphasise a boat’s visual language in a playful way. Kennedy describes the space as “more luxury yacht than sailboat”, with its two distinct bars that nod to the disparate above and below deck realms. One lair is light and breezy, the other darker and more glamorous, with a polished Fior di Bosco stone-topped bar and glossy caramel tile stretching from the back bar up to the ceiling.
A ship’s structure, its sleek and rounded hull, robust sails and functional pulleys alike, greatly influenced Parts and Labor Design’s work. It was while admiring the careful construction of these forms and their inherent linear geometry that the studio gravitated towards an art-as-object methodology too, unveiling another overlapping layer that is instrumental to the overall design scheme.
“The building has the look of a warehouse, so we thought about this aesthetic and what felt good and made sense to us,” says Levitt. “Those first impressions lead us to wanting the hotel to also be a gallery-esque space, filled with things that feel collected.”
That vibe is most evident in the lobby, where an entry bench, designed to look as if it is part of someone’s personal stash, effortlessly mingles with a pair of bucket seat-flanking totemic sculptures by Nashville artist Kit Reuther.
Maialino, the Roman-style trattoria from Danny Meyer’s New York-based Union Square Hospitality Group, which also operates Anchovy Social and the Thompson Bar Room, possesses a similarly intimate air. Following the original restaurant, long a hit in The Big Apple at Gramercy Park Hotel, this second outpost strengthens its connection to location through an Italian coastal menu that puts seafood-centric pastas in the spotlight.
A connection between the two Maialino restaurants is apparent but not overpowering, according to Levitt. This allows newcomers to become acquainted with the Maialino vision through a design lens befitting of the burgeoning Navy Yard. Blue leather booths and terracotta flooring are buoyed by artwork that would fit right in at a home library, while wine cabinets hint at the hotel’s vast collection. The multi-faceted dining room is imperceptibly carved into zones, so that the morning guest who seeks a grab-and-go olive oil muffin at the front pastry counter savours a different experience than the happy-hour patron facing the two-tiered back bar with an aperitivo in hand, or the diner sitting down to a traditional lunch.
Providing guests with countless moments to pause and think throughout the hotel was one of Parts and Labor Design’s goals, but in a high-stress, always-on-the-move place like Washington DC, transporting restaurants and bars often aren’t enough of a sanctuary. That’s why the guestrooms were designed with ease in mind, says Kennedy: “It felt quite important on that scale to eliminate harsh right angles and bring forth a certain softness.”
During the day, adds Levitt, “there is something about the mix of stark white and deep blues and greens with the dark woods that has a utilitarian nature”. Come evening however, compounded by the rosy lighting emanating from bedside sconces, guestrooms decidedly grow moodier, shifting from comfortable and bold to subtle and calming to help weary travellers recharge their batteries before another day in the capital.
EXPRESS CHECK-OUT
Owner: Union Investment Real Estate
Operator: Pivot Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt Hotels Corporation
Architecture: Studios Architecture
Interior Design: Parts and Labor Design
Lighting Design: Bold
Art Consultant: Art Advisory Service
Procurement: Neil Locke & Associates
Main Contractor: JMA
Project Manager: Geolo Capital
www.thompsonhotels.com
CREDITS
Words: Alia Akkam
Photography: © Julie Soefer
