POV rooftop lounge at the W Hotel Washington D.C. has been closed for just more than a month, and we’re now getting a better look at what the renovated lounge will offer when it reopens in September.
The design was kept a little more basic when the hotel first opened in 2009, said Olivier Servat, the W’s general manager, in part, because of restrictions on the terrace area imposed by the U.S. Secret Service and other security agencies due to the hotel’s proximity to the White House.
“The rooftop terrace not being enclosed, because of its location, led us to opt for a style that was not as design-focused as the rest of the hotel,” Servat said. “As part of the W Hotel, which is a luxury brand, we wanted it to be a little more stylish, more upscale.”
That previous style choice in turn directed some of the business that the hotel was able to book on the roof, he added.
“It obligated us to select the kind of party, in some cases, that was not completely in line with what you would expect from a venue like the W,” he said. “With this new design, we kind of pride ourselves on providing a venue that can give you three different moods and three different impressions, depending on whether it’s a social moment or more corporate, working area.”
Click through the gallery for renderings of the rooftop design.
In an effort to make the semi-enclosed terrace portion of the rooftop more stylish, the space will be divided into three separate moods marked by different color schemes. The more casual “dome bar,” with a new rounded bar and communal table, will offer the warmer, golden colors on the F Street side of the building. A VIP area on the south side of the terrace, closer to the Washington Monument, will stick with a cleaner, white motif.
In between, a lounge seating area will be presided over by a “red-tape wall,” a glowing red installation, which will also serve as a backdrop for DJs. All three moods are an effort to elevate the design, Servat said.
The terrace will still not be completely weather-proofed due to restrictions imposed by federal officials. But they do have some ideas of how that could be remedied, including a harder-but-still-mobile enclosure they hope to install in the future if it receives approval from the U.S. Secret Service.
Another part of the hotel under renovation, the restaurant that will replace the recently shuttered J & G Steakhouse, aims to reopen in late September.
