Embassy Row Hotel
The Ven at Embassy Row, Washington, D.C., a Tribute Portfolio Hotel is a hotel owned by Lowe Enterprises located at 2015 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The hotel, a Modernist structure which opened in 1970 as The Embassy Row Hotel, is in the Embassy Row neighborhood of the city, and takes its name from the area. The hotel is considered a "landmark" in the city.
Construction and early reception
The Embassy Row Hotel was financed and constructed by Dr. Cyrus Katzen, a local dental surgeon who became a multi-millionaire by investing heavily in real estate. Other investors included securities lawyer G. Bradford Cook, former hotel manager Klaus P. Reincke, and three anonymous investors from Nashville, Tennessee.At the time, the 2000 block of Massachusetts Avenue NW consisted of two- and three-story Victorian townhouses and mansions, many of them the homes or former homes of very wealthy and politically prominent people. A zoning exemption allowed the nine-story hotel to be built there.
The structure opened on December 15, 1970. Alice Roosevelt Longworth, 86-year-old daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and wife of former Speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth, cut the ceremonial ribbon. Accompanying her were Walter Washington, Mayor of the District of Columbia, and Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa, Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States and dean of the diplomatic corps. Sculptor Victor Lamkay contributed sculpture for the lobby,
Aesthetic reception
The Modernist structure was deeply criticized by The Washington Post architecture critic Wolf Von Eckardt. He called it "bland", "uncharming", and "a triumph of Middle America—the assertion of nouveau riche, middle-brow culture that is all at once touching, camp and distressing." Katzen, a neighbor of Von Eckardt's, famously wrote a long letter to The Washington Post taking issue with factual errors and personal attacks in Von Eckardt's architectural review. Katzen offered his dental services, writing, "I would be glad to see him in my capacity as a dentist and extract his foot from his mouth at his earliest convenience." Von Eckardt had Katzen's letter published in full in The Washington Post.Its architectural reputation did not improve over time. Professor of architecture Roger K. Lewis called it a "latter day architectural lapse" in 1986.
Operational history
Early operations
General Hotels Corp. was the first company to manage the hotel. In January 1972, the hotel saw a spectacular theft when a thief stole $10,000 in jewelry from the room of Jeanette Rockefeller, wife of Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller.The Embassy Row Hotel was the location of a major political scandal that erupted in 1978. U.S. Senator Herman Talmadge and his then-administrative assistant, Daniel Minchew, began diverting campaign funds to Talmadge's personal use in 1973. Transfers of cash usually occurred when Minchew withdrew funds from campaign bank accounts and delivered the cash to Talmadge in his Senate office. On only a single occasion did Minchew deliver cash elsewhere, and that occurred at The Embassy Row Hotel in November 1974 after Talmadge gave a speech there. Talmadge was found guilty of diverting funds, and censured by the Senate on October 11, 1979.
In 1979, the hotel was the site of secret negotiations regarding a major act of political terrorism. On September 21, 1976, former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier was killed by a car bomb on September 21, 1976, on Sheridan Circle—just a hundred yards from the Embassy Row Hotel. Two Chileans, the current and the former head of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, and an American in the employ of DINA were accused of the crime. A DINA agent, Capt. Armando Fernandez Larios, offered to testify against the conspirators if the United States dropped extradition proceedings against him. Negotiations over the agent's testimony and extradition occurred at the Embassy Row Hotel, although no agreement was ever reached. All three conspirators were later found guilty.
Ownership change and the 1981-1982 strike
The first major change in the hotel's ownership came in 1981. Since its opening, the hotel had never done good business, and often lost money. In 1980, the loss was more than $1 million. In September 1981, a consortium of 20 wealthy Republican Party donors purchased The Embassy Row for $14 million with a goal of making it a high-end luxury hotel catering specifically to GOP politicians, donors, and others.The consortium consisted mostly of individuals involved in the Oklahoma oil drilling and petroleum refining business, including J.D. Allen, Robert A. Hefner III, Steve Jernigan, Virgil Tilly, and Lew O. Ward. The consortium was led by G. Bradford Cook and Joe M. Rogers, a former Republican National Committee Finance Committee chairman. The consortium intended to give the hotel a new name, Hotel Trianon, and give it a $3 million French Baroque renovation.
The renovation was delayed for two reasons. First, occupancy rates at the hotel dropped to lows not seen since World War II. Second, the hotel suffered a debilitating strike. The hotel withdrew from the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C.'s master contract in October 1981, a move which angered the association and signalled management's intent to negotiate a separate contract. The hotel staff union, Local 25 HERE, struck on November 17 when the hotel owners demanded 90 days to review all staff and fire whomever they chose without cause, due process, or notice. Management also sought cuts in pension and health care benefits. Occupancy rates dropped to just 50 percent, 20 percent lower than the city-wide average and well below the break-even point. Third, financing for the hotel purchase and renovation came under fire by labor unions and others in Tennessee. The hotel was purchased with a $9.8 million loan from Security Federal Savings and Loan in Nashville. The single loan represented 60 percent of the commercial loan business of the savings and loan association and its only out-of-state loan—which led to questions about whether undue influence was applied to the S&L to make the loan, and whether it imperiled the S&L's financial stability. The consortium said that the strike had delayed the renovation two months and the hotel would likely lose $1.5 million in 1982, but that nevertheless the renovation would proceed.
The renovation did not proceed, and the strike continued. Losses were so high that the consortium now lacked the means to finance the upgrades. Lincoln Hotels, a subsidiary of Lincoln Property Company, purchased a 10 percent interest in The Embassy Row Hotel for an undisclosed sum in May 1982.
The company also took over management of the property, and said it would renovate the structure in an attempt to turn The Embassy Row into a five-star hotel.
Lincoln Hotels quickly negotiated an end to the strike. The eight-month strike ended on July 12, 1982, when the Embassy Row Hotel signed a new contract with Local 25. The Republican-led consortium won nothing: The new agreement was nearly identical to the hotel association's master contract.
1983 renovation
The hotel finally underwent a $5 million renovation in 1983 to turn it into a luxury hotel. The newly renovated hotel was rededicated in late April 1983. Alejandro Orfila, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, performed the ribbon-cutting. Ann Grey, an interior decorator known for her work on deluxe hotels in the United States, redesigned the hotel interior. Many of the hotel's small rooms were enlarged and 28 suites created. Other changes included offering a free, full breakfast to all guests, offering luxury bath and toilet items, putting television sets into armoires rather than hanging them from brackets on the walls, and adding an herb garden on the roof for the restaurant's use. Le Consulat was closed, and a new restaurant named La Reserve opened with a lower-priced menu.The Embassy Row Hotel received a four-star rating after the renovation. A "royal/presidential" suite was added to the top floor by combining several rooms. Within the year, it hosted Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi. That same year, the Federal City Club leased space within the hotel while it searched for a permanent home.
The renovated hotel proved popular with the rich and famous. The following year saw New York City real estate executive Jerome Zipkin, department store heiress Betsy Bloomingdale, cosmetics and perfume magnate Estée Lauder, and actress Mary Martin stay at the hotel.
The hotel also proved popular for scandals. The Iran–Contra affair broke open on November 25, 1986, when the Reagan administration disclosed that funds generated by arms sales to Iran had been used to support rebels in Nicaragua fighting the communist regime of Daniel Ortega. The arms sales violated a U.S. embargo on sales to Iran, and the diversion of funds violated federal law barring use of federal funds to support the rebels. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North was fired from the National Security Council the same day for orchestrating the arms sales and funds diversion. On November 24, North met for several hours with fellow conspirators Richard Secord, a retired Air Force Major General; Albert Hakim, an Iranian American businessman; and Thomas C. Green, a prominent D.C. criminal attorney who claimed to be legal counsel for North, Secord and Hakim. Hours after being fired on November 25, North, Green, and Secord met for several hours at the Embassy Row Hotel. After the meeting, North and Green returned to North's office in the Old Executive Office Building and assisted North's secretary, Fawn Hall, in smuggling documents smuggling classified documents out of the building. The Los Angeles Times reported that congressional investigators and legal experts both agreed that the conspiracy to attempt to cover up the Iran-Contra Affair began at these two meetings.
But still the hotel did not do good business. In 1985, occupancy rates fell to 50 percent. Director of Marketing Maureen Curry was forced to lower rates and seek motorcoach tours to fill rooms. Although occupancy rose to 60 percent, it was still not breaking even. While the hotel did excellent business during the workweek, it was "dead empty" on weekends.