Get a Much-Needed Dose of Optimism at This Washington, D.C. Hotel

Dysfunction in government. A pandemic. An uncertain economy. The Morrow Hotel, a recently opened property in Washington, is an antidote to the national—and global—malaise. The name alone evokes better days ahead. But it’s the fresh, light scheme that conveys the optimism of the new brand, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton. That’s thanks to two of Interior Design’s Hospitality Giants: Rottet Studio, ranked 40th on that list, and INC Architecture & Design, 42nd, which conceived the private and public areas, respectively. Though the firms worked independently, they created differentiated spaces with warmth and character that form a remarkably cohesive whole. 

The 149,000-square-foot, 12-story hotel is part of Central Armature Works, a new mixed-use development in the formerly industrial NoMa neighborhood. Construction by the client, developer Trammell Crow Company, began in 2019, and its team initially envisioned a dark and luxurious atmosphere that gestured to the gritty location by the train tracks. But the pandemic soon scrambled that plan. Trammell Crow hired creative agency Revolver to rethink the hotel for the COVID era, and the resulting brand book became the basis for the interiors. 

“We all agreed that we needed something positive: airy, open, and joyful,” begins Adam Rolston, INC founding partner and creative and managing director. He, cofounding partner and construction and development director Drew Stuart, and their team oversaw the concepts for the lobby; Le Clou, a modern brasserie and the hotel’s main restaurant; the 11th-floor cocktail lounge, Vesper; and Upstairs, the rooftop bar and terrace. The 203 guest rooms and the conference center, totaling 16,500 square feet of meeting areas, are by Rottet Studio—which also ranks 67th among the top 100 Giants and 80th for Sustainability Giants—led by Interior Design Hall of Fame member and founding principal Lauren Rottet. 

The firms rarely consulted each other during the process, Rolston says, “but we arrived at the same place.” That’s because both took a holistic slant that extended the brand identity into the physical environment. “Despite designing a hotel during the pandemic, almost entirely over video calls, the project was a seamless collaboration,” Stuart recalls. “It’s a prime example of our communitarian approach.”

INC, also 123rd amid the Rising Giants and 68th for Sustainability, has a growing portfolio of hospitality projects that includes the nearby Line Hotel and the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge in New York. While the former occupies a century-old church, the Morrow is in a ground-up building. Rolston and Stuart began by studying the area to create a sense of place, visiting such disparate local sites as the Lincoln Memorial, Union Market, and Manifest, a club/ barbershop. “It’s always a heavy lift to bring real personality to a new-build, but it’s what we enjoy doing,” Rolston continues. The city’s neoclassical architecture inspired fluted coffee tables and oak millwork that wraps columns. In the lobby, ribbed-glass panels have a celadon hue taken from the conservatory at the United States Botanic Garden, about a mile away. The district’s low-key culture informed the comfortable yet luxurious setting. 

One of Revolver’s ideas was that spaces should evoke different times of day, depending on when they’re used, transitioning from light to dark. “It was poetic and became the core driver of the project,” Rolston notes. The lobby’s sky blue–upholstered sofa, white travertine flooring, and bleached millwork channel morning. In clubby Vesper, the same millwork is stained midnight blue, and navy mohair armchairs, dark travertine-and-walnut tables, and oak parquet are more nighttime. At the rooftop bar Upstairs, the green, blue, and orange palette comes straight from a photograph of the National Mall at dusk. 

Guest rooms have the bright, crisp look of midday. “They’re meant to feel calm and relaxing, reflecting the idea of how the colors of the sun change your perception of the city,” Rottet picks up the thread. She and her studio created quartz-topped nightstands, maple-veneered credenzas, and ombré wallpaper reminiscent of drifting clouds. Rottet—who’s designed hotels everywhere from Lubbock, Texas, to Hong Kong plus dozens of ships for Viking Cruises—explains that, “It’s always our goal to make interiors animated like the outdoors, and not static.” This instinct aligned with the brand’s emphasis on the times of day. 

Rottet also aimed to indicate movement. The idea sprang from the train tracks, the repetitive rhythm of local bay windows, and turntables (the Beatles played their first U.S. concert around the corner from the site). This led to the ribbing of the lacquered-wood wainscotting—that coincidentally mirrors INC’s fluted columns—and wool rugs with speckled patterns. In the ballroom, polished-bronze petals glint under a grand ceiling fixture, its circular shape evoking Washington’s historic rotundas. 

Bill Brewer, a senior vice president at Trammell Crow, says his company hired two different firms for logistical reasons, but it proved to be fortuitous. “We didn’t have to worry about things getting too uniform,” he says. But there’s still continuity: “Design elements travel through the spaces in an effective way.” He points to the cove lights in the lobby and Le Clou, where cast-gypsum circles are plastered to drywall ceiling panels to form shapes that resemble celestial bodies. Derived from column capitals, the fixtures are placed randomly in the lobby and symmetrically in the more formal restaurant. In both places, they seem to signal that there is upward momentum.

Peek Inside The Morrow Hotel in Washington, D.C.

INC ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN: GABRIEL BENROTH; TYLER KLECK; MEGAN MCGING; MARISSA ZANE; AMY CAHILL; JOSELYN DONTFRAID; BILLY ABRAMENKO. 

ROTTET STUDIO: DAVID DAVIS; JAMES CULL; JOE JELINEK; ASHLEY LIU; CHRIS EVANS; NOGA SMERKOWITZ; SNEHA KODI; RATHA SANGWORRAWUTTHIKRI; STACY RAPA; SIMONA FURINI; FELIPE COSIO. 

SHALOM BARANES ASSOCIATES: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. 

REVOLVER: GRAPHICS, BRANDING. 

PDI LIGHTING: LIGHTING CONSULTANT. 

CARDNO HAYNES WHALEY; STANTEC: STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS. 

INTERFACE ENGINEERING: MEP. 

WILES MENSCH CORPORATION: CIVIL ENGINEER. 

AWM GROUP: MILLWORK, ACID-ETCHED GLASSWORK. 

SOHO MYRIAD: ART CONSULTANT. 

CLARK CONSTRUCTION GROUP: GENERAL CONTRACTOR. 

FROM FRONT KINGS COMMERCIAL INTERIORS: CUSTOM SOFAS (LOBBY, UPSTAIRS).

COMPOSITION HOSPITALITY: CUSTOM LOUNGE CHAIRS, CUSTOM OTTOMANS (LOBBY, VESPER), CUSTOM STOOLS (LE CLOU BAR), CUSTOM SOFAS, CUSTOM CHAIRS (TERRACE), CUSTOM CHAIRS (UPSTAIRS). 

MUNNWORKS: CUSTOM COCKTAIL TABLES (LOBBY, VESPER, UPSTAIRS), CUSTOM TABLES (LE CLOU), CUSTOM MIRRORS (BURNHAM SUITE, BATHROOM). 

NEW YORK STONE: BAR TOP (LE CLOU BAR). 

TEAK WAREHOUSE: CONCRETE SIDE TABLE (TERRACE). 

JANUS ET CIE: OTTOMANS. 

DISTRICT EIGHT DESIGN: CHAIRS (MEETING ROOM). 

JUNIPER DESIGN GROUP: SCONCES. 

I-WORKS: CUSTOM CEILING FIXTURE (BALLROOM). 

TRIBECA STONE: FLOOR TILE (LE CLOU). 

SMARTWOOD: CUSTOM WOOD FLOORING. 

ALLIED MAKER: SCONCES (PREFUNCTION HALL, BURNHAM SUITE). 

POTOCCO: CHAIR (PREFUNCTION HALL), STOOLS (BURNHAM SUITE). 

PROVIDENTIAL METALS: HANDRAILS (STAIR). 

ARTISTIC FRAME: DINING CHAIRS (BURNHAM SUITE). 

BERMANFALK HOSPITALITY GROUP: CUSTOM CREDENZA, CUSTOM TABLE (BURNHAM SUITE), CUSTOM BEDS, CUSTOM NIGHTSTANDS (GUEST ROOMS), CUSTOM VANITY (BATHROOM). 

CHARTER FURNITURE: ARMCHAIR, OTTOMAN (GUEST ROOM), CUSTOM BENCH, CUSTOM SOFA (BURNHAM SUITE).

WESTWOOD AVENUE HOSPITALITY: CUSTOM SOFA (SUITE). 

BURKE DECOR: TABLE. 

THROUGHOUT MAPLE TILE AND TERRAZZO: STONE FLOORING. 

RELATIVE SPACE: CUSTOM PARQUET FLOORING. 

HB LIGHTING: CUSTOM LIGHT FIXTURES. 

LOLOEY: CUSTOM RUGS. 

PHILLIP JEFFRIES; WOLF-GORDON: WALLCOVERING. 

COUNTY DRAPERIES: CUSTOM DRAPES. 

BENJAMIN MOORE & CO.: PAINT.