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Project: Convene Hamilton Square,
Washington, DC
Architect: FOX Architects
Structural Engineer: Tadjer-Cohen-Edelson
Associates, Inc.
MEP Engineer: CFR Engineering
Project Manager: Macro Consultants
General Contractor: DAVIS

Banquette seating is nestled under a portion of the staircase.

Since the late 1990s, the historic nine-story commercial building “Our goal was to create a space that fused this location’s
at the northwest corner of 14th and F streets, NW, has been rich history as DC’s premier retailer with the boutique
known as Hamilton Square, a name that plays off the structure’s experience for which Convene is renowned,” the architecture
location a block from the Treasury Department building. But firm said.
for readers of a certain age, the handsome limestone-clad “We researched the original department store design—
structure—designed in 1928 in the stripped-classical style by the space had a very generous ceiling height, especially for
the New York architecture firm of Starrett and Van Vleck, and DC,” said Christina McEnroe, NCIDQ, LEED AP, the firm’s
added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in senior project designer. “Soft curves and fluted elements were
1995—is better remembered as the longtime flagship location also found throughout the space.” The firm’s research into the
for Garfinckel’s, the local department store chain that was a tony postwar era’s clothing trends, she added, “was one of the most
fixture of the area’s retail scene for decades before it went out of intriguing parts of our design process. It’s not often we get the
business in 1990. opportunity to research 1950s couture fashion. There were a
Images of the building’s interior during Garfinckel’s few trends that the [design] team used as inspiration: pleated
postwar heyday, along with pictures of 1950s-era fashion dresses, tightly cinched waists, warm palettes, and fine textures.
trends, served as the inspiration for FOX Architects’ design for We were also inspired by the bold pop of red lipstick seen in the
Convene-Hamilton Square, a 79,900-square-foot meeting and catalogues of that era.”
coworking facility that now occupies the building’s fourth, fifth, Convene-Hamilton Square offers four large meetings rooms
and sixth floors. seating 104 to 259 people, almost twenty smaller meeting rooms,

A FASHIONABLE PLACE TO WORK 31