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Rosewood Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, United States · Rosewood · Grand Luxury

Rosewood Washington, D.C.: ExteriorRosewood Washington, D.C.: Luxury Hotel in DC | 5-Star Georgetown Hotel | RosewoodRosewood Washington, D.C.: Bedroom

Vlastimil Koubek's 1963 Canal Building was Georgetown's first major new structure in fifty years and its first new office block in a century, forced into Federalist red brick by the Commission of Fine Arts. After ATLA years as the Leonard M. Ring Law Center, a $50 million conversion opened in 2013 as Capella, then rebranded Rosewood in 2016. Fifty-five keys include canal-side rooms and townhouses above the C&O towpath.

About Rosewood Washington, D.C.

History

The building at 1050 31st Street NW in Georgetown was constructed in 1963 under circumstances that made it, in several respects, a first for the neighborhood. The site was purchased in 1961 by a group of D.C.-area businessmen — advertising executive Henry Kaufman and insurance executives from the Young family — who hired local architect Vlastimil Koubek to design a five-story office building. Koubek's initial proposal was a Modernist design with an all-glass first floor and exposed stone upper floors, but the United States Commission of Fine Arts, which holds approval authority over construction in Georgetown under the Old Georgetown Act, rejected it as too contemporary for the historic neighborhood's Federal-period streetscape.

The back-and-forth between architect, zoning commission, and the Commission of Fine Arts produced a Federalist-style red brick building with small windows — a design restrained enough to read as a distant cousin of the eighteenth-century row houses around it, yet unmistakably a product of the early 1960s. When completed, it was simultaneously the first major new building constructed in Georgetown in fifty years and the first new office building in the neighborhood in a full century. The George A. Fuller Company erected the structure, and it was first occupied in August 1963.

The building spent its first decades as professional office space, housing Kaufman's advertising agency and the Young insurance firm before the Association of Trial Lawyers of America purchased it in 1977 and relocated its headquarters from Boston, renaming the building the Leonard M. Ring Law Center. The lawyers vacated in 2007 when the ATLA acquired a new building, leaving the Canal Building — as it had been known for its position above the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath — empty and available for a use its 1960s designers had not contemplated.

The conversion to a luxury hotel was announced in 2010 by Castleton Holdings and ICG Properties, who had purchased the building in 2008 and eventually brought in Point Ford Management as a third equity partner to fund the $50 million renovation. The architects Mancini and Duffy and Michael Winstanley Architects and Planners transformed the 36,000-square-foot office building into a 48-room hotel of considerable intimacy — each room featuring trayed ceilings, cove lighting, millwork manufactured in Europe, hardwood parquet flooring salvaged from a demolished French château, and laser-cut marble surfaces. The hotel opened in March 2013 under Capella Hotels and Resorts as the Capella Hotel, then was acquired by CTF Georgetown Hotel LLC and rebranded as the Rosewood Washington, D.C. on April 21, 2016.

A 2018 to 2019 renovation by the Georgetown-based interior designer Thomas Pheasant added six historic townhouses adjacent to the main building — each approximately a thousand square feet of residential living space with gas fireplaces, fully functioning kitchens, washer-dryers, and direct street access that makes them feel, as intended, like the private residences of wealthy Georgetown neighbors rather than hotel suites. The property's rooftop pool and bar commands views down the Potomac to the Washington Monument and the Reagan National Airport flight path, a panorama that makes the building's canal-side position feel like the center of the capital rather than its most discreet corner. The hotel holds MICHELIN Two Keys designation, the first tier of the guide's hotel recognition — a validation appropriate to a property that achieves distinction through restraint.

The setting

Rosewood Washington, D.C. is sited at 1050 31st Street NW in Georgetown, steps from the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that once carried Appalachian coal to this 1751 tobacco port predating the District of Columbia. The immediate streetscape delivers Federal-era rowhouses, the boutique retail of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, Blues Alley — the nation's oldest continuing jazz supper club — and Potomac waterfront restaurants including the acclaimed Fiola Mare. The Kennedy Center lies minutes to the south; the White House is sixteen transit minutes away and the National Mall twenty-three.

Restaurants and bars

Experiences

Amenities

Awards

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