Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Though both offer high-style luxury, two new D.C.-area hotels under the AKA banner are as different — in the words of their management — as “Night” and “Day.”
“Day” refers to the nine-story, green-roofed Hotel AKA Washington Circle (prior to its redesign by AKA known as One Washington Circle Hotel). Seated on a balcony overlooking treetops, paths and Clark Mills’s statue of George on horseback, one feels embraced by light and sky.
An outdoor space at the Hotel AKA Washington Circle. Photo by Richard Selden.
In contrast, the palette of gorgeous grays wielded by designer Piero Lissoni to create the Hotel AKA Alexandria at 625 First St., its suave horizontal façade closing off St. Asaph Street in Old Town North, evokes the sophistication of an urban evening — thus, “Night.”
“Night” and “Day” opened a year apart: Alexandria in April of 2023 and Washington Circle last May.
Hotel AKA Alexandria was one of Lissoni’s first two U.S. hotel projects; the other being Hotel AKA NoMad in Manhattan. Upon its arrival in Old Town, all memory vanished of its predecessor, a national chain hotel.
Hotel AKA Washington Circle. Photo by Richard Selden.
“This is what you can do with $55 million,” Managing Director Christopher Saputo told a journalist awed by the hotel’s aesthetic, a blend of Japanese, Scandinavian and Italian minimalism. Don’t miss the signature “hanging” staircase.
The AKA brand is under the umbrella of Korman, based in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Now in its fifth generation of family ownership, Korman was started by a Russian immigrant who came to New York in 1904. Settling in Philadelphia the following year, he worked in the garment industry while his wife took in boarders on a farm. Over the decades, the company went on to build houses, apartments and planned communities. Furnished suites became a key niche, and hotels eventually (and logically) followed.
Hotel AKA Alexandria. Photo by Richard Selden.
AKA’s tagline, “the world’s most livable hotels,” alludes not only to the kitchens, fitness centers and laundry facilities valued by guests who stay a week, a month or longer, but to each property’s overall feel: classy but comfortable. The rooms have a “boutique” sense of surprise, free of pretension. And, speaking of surprise, the Hotel AKA Washington Circle suite where I overnighted was large enough to get lost in.
A third of the D.C. hotel’s 151 rooms are suites, including 18 with full kitchens. The Alexandria property takes advantage of its spacious site with 180 rooms, 15 “specialty suites” and 8,000 square feet or so of indoor meeting space. About 6,000 additional square feet are outdoors on an inviting enclosed terrace, faced by rooms with Juliet balconies. Supplementing the Technogym fitness center, an on-site Pilates studio, Lalita Method, bills itself as a “one stop holistic wellness experience.”
Hotel AKA Alexandria. Photo by Richard Selden.
Not that the Hotel AKA Washington Circle is lacking in unique public spaces. Just past its distinctive carport entrance is a long, light-filled lobby. There is a board room for meetings, a fitness center and, out back, a patio with pergola and fire pit. Managing Director Mark Driscoll made a point of mentioning the upcoming “12 Days of Christmas” festivities, complete with hot chocolate.
Of special note, having just opened in September, is the Hotel AKA Washington Circle’s Gensler-designed a.kitchen+bar, a partnership with Philadelphia chef Ellen Yin’s High Street Hospitality Group, winner of the 2023 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Restaurateur. Under executive chef Eli Collins, its American-French bistro menu features seasonal American small plates.
The captivating restaurant space at the Hotel AKA Alexandria, a.lounge+bar, seems to extend for a block. Its centerpiece: a bar with a spectacular “mamacloud” sculpture above. Its Mid-Atlantic menu emphasizes seafood; Saputo made a point of mentioning the designer mussel pots. “I think we bought like seven,” he said proudly.
Hotel AKA Alexandria. Photo by Richard Selden.
Each hotel’s location adds to its appeal. A short stroll from the heart of Old Town, the Hotel AKA Alexandria is opposite a West Elm and handy to Thai, steak and hot chicken restaurants. Included in the destination fee: the use of Pedego electric bikes, which, according to Saputo, guests ride as far as Mount Vernon.
As for the Hotel AKA Washington Circle, the George Washington University campus and hospital are right across the park, with Georgetown a striking distance away. And slipping out to the Bluestone Lane coffee shop in the West End Neighborhood Library couldn’t be easier.
Did I mention that there’s a cozy screening room in both hotels? Settle into a plush armchair and feel like a movie mogul.