The Trump International Hotel is in the Old Post Office Pavilion, one of Washington D.C.’s most historically valued buildings. Completed in 1899, the building served as a postal sorting facility until 1914. After this date the building became an office building, surviving 2 major developments planned for the area which threated the destruction of the building.
Creating a modern 5-star hotel in an historical structure such as the Old Post Office, with the intent of preserving the historic value of the exterior and interior was a challenge that the architect and the designer have successfully overcome.
Rugo stone was contracted for furnish & install all of the new natural stone intended for the Hotel by the designer.
The stone in each guest room and public space bathrooms of the hotel were extremely well blended. A careful stone selection of the premium Statuario marble complemented with an accent color of Rubicon dark grey marble gave an exquisite composition. Each unit and public space bathroom was factory dry-lay and inspected, and to ensure all material was installed without any inaccuracy – the crating had to be performed by unit. The unit baths consisted of 18 x 18” tile, with custom base of ¾”, sills, and triple laminated vanity tops. Rugo Stone’s crews have completed 270 guestroom bathrooms in record time.
All the primary public space bathrooms are clad and paved in Statuario and Emperador marble. The secondary public space baths and locker rooms are clad in porcelain tile with Absolute Black granite vanities.
The museum corridors are paved in a special type of porcelain tile, which resembles Arabescato marble, but offers a higher slip resistance and wearing pattern due to the high volume of tourists.
The Cortile area (the main public lobby of the Hotel) measures 139’ x 98’. The Cortile floor is paved in large format, custom cut, lustrous Classic Emperador Dark marble. The desired and mandated by the Owner marble was very challenging to procure and represented only 5% of the quarry production. The entire Cortile was also factory dry-lay and blended to ensure complete Owner satisfaction. Rugo also floated over 10,000 sq. ft. of structural slab fill to accommodate the new marble, and new carpet infill areas. The main lobby bar was fabricated from vanilla White onyx with an end matching vein pattern and delicate half bullnose epoxy leading edge. The Cortile also features the grand stair that was cladded in new Emperador marble treads, risers, and large format landing pieces also in matching Emperador Brown marble.
Opposite the main bar is the BLT Prime restaurant, which features a grand wall of 8’-6” tall single piece Calacatta Grey marble with a slip matched pattern. The rest of the space is completed with flueri cut Calacatta Grey marble flooring, a grand central stair case, bar tops, and server tops throughout the entire restaurant space. This crisp modern contrast, provides a distinct transition from the Cortile public space into the BLT space, where over 7,500 sq. ft. of marble was used.
The façade of the Annex Building Entry is clad with back-lit pure white onyx panels, laminated to 2 layers of heat strengthened Low-E Glass. This very complex structurally glazed wall has a hurricane proof inter layer. All the aluminum framing and anchorage system has been custom designed, furnished, and installed by Rugo Stone. This cutting-edge engineering approach allows the façade to glow once back-lit, showing the fine veining of the cross cut pure white onyx, creating an elegant and contemporary approach to the Hotel Annex.
This installation measures roughly 1,800 sq. ft. and the material – pure white onyx is very rare and hard to procure. The lamination process was very carefully supervised by Rugo Stone, as the delicate structure and valuable features of such thinly cut onyx could be easily damaged during this time consuming manufacture.
The exterior scope included also a vast street scape on 11th Street side, which creates the main drive entry to the Hotel and Annex, and is paved in Georgia grey granite 4×4 cobbles. Over 75,000 cobbles were installed in this street scape, along with custom made curbs, sidewalks & stair cases in large format Charcoal Grey paving, and specially procured wall panels and coping for the handy-cap ramp to match existing Deer Isle granite from over 25 years. This installation was a very labor intensive process and took over 3 months, working 7 days per week, 10-14 hours per day to meet Hotel’s opening dead line date.
Location: Washington, DC
Completion Date: 2016
Owner: Trump Old Post Office Hotel LLC
Architect: WDG Architecture
General Contractor: Lend Lease Construction (US) Inc
Size: 148,000 sqft
Services Performed: Design, Fabricate, and Install stone @ Interior public spaces, Guest Rooms & Exterior
