Marking a major milestone for Washington, D.C., J.W. Marriott, Jr., executive chairman of Marriott International, Mayor Vincent C. Gray, District of Columbia, and dignitaries celebrated the topping off of the Marriott Marquis Washington DC on September 25th, signifying that the 15-story property has reached its final construction height. Located across the street from Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the 1,175-room property will help the city attract additional convention business by giving the facility an anchor hotel. The company will operate the hotel under its flagship Marriott Hotels brand with 500 properties in 60 countries.
Unveiling its new name and logo for the first time officially, the Marriott Marquis Washington DC will be one of only five Marriott Marquis properties in the country. After the ceremony, Mr. Marriott hosted invited guests for a sneak peek of the hotel’s lobby atrium area where the soon-to-be iconic centerpiece of the hotel – a 56-foot sculpture named “The Birth of the America Flag” created by Baltimore-based artist Rodney Carroll is located. When completed, the sculpture will reach the fifth floor of the 15-floor building, viewable from the ground-floor lobby, mezzanine, and the interior-facing guestrooms. Carroll’s sculpture will be the largest piece of art in any Marriott hotel.
All interiors to the hotel are being overseen by US architecture and interiors practice BBG-BBGM
When it opens on May 1, 2014 the $520-million, four-star hotel will have 1,175 rooms including 49 suites, and over 105,000 square feet of function space, as well as five separate restaurant spaces. Connected directly via underground concourse to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, an anchor of the District’s hospitality and tourism economy, the convention center hotel is poised to become the dynamic epicenter and social hub of DC’s downtown neighborhood introducing new venues for meetings, conventions, social gatherings and business travelers.
Meeting space will include a 30,000-square-foot Marquis Ballroom, two 10,800-square-foot ballrooms, more than 53,000 square feet of superior meeting rooms, an 18,800-square-foot indoor event terrace and a 5,200-square-foot rooftop terrace. Unique to this hotel, the below-grade meeting space has been thoughtfully designed to incorporate natural light that will filter into the meeting space from the open spaces above.
The Marriott Marquis Washington DC was also designed to earn LEED ® Silver (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, registered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The hotel will be one of the largest hotels in the country to earn Silver certification, verifying that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
The hotel is being developed by Quadrangle Development Corporation and Capstone Development and will be operated by Marriott International. Designed by Cooper Carry Architects, Atlanta, and TVS Architects, Atlanta, in a joint-venture collaboration, the building features an innovative top-down construction method, with 15 stories above ground and 94 feet below – nearly as deep as the hotel will be tall.
