Award of Excellence
Best Retail Project

Project Team

Capital One - (Owner + Developer)
Leo A Daly - (Architect)
Buch Construction - (General Contractor)
JLL - (Project Management)

Project Description

Capital One Café in Georgetown, DC is a flagship café which serves less as a bank branch and more of a local social and co-working space anchored around a coffee shop feel. The intent was to create a community focused space to support the social and entrepreneurial needs of the neighborhood, while offering an engaging and fun experience for the customer. With the current intersection of the digital and physical banking worlds, Capital One Cafés are carefully curated for how people live and bank today.

The historic building was built in the 1920’s and most recently served as one of the most iconic restaurants, Nathan’s Restaurant, located on the SE corner of Wisconsin Ave and M Street NW. The space was purchased by Capital One as a shell space with many of the historic finishes in place but in need of restoration. Capital One chose to keep the integrity of the space which required excellence in craftsmanship to blend the old finishes with new materials.

The historic mosaic tile was custom sourced through an American made manufacturer and installed carefully by local craftsmen to blend the old and the new seamlessly. This required detailed hand work of carefully cutting out damaged pieces and hand setting individual small hexagon tiles to adjoin to the new. Existing brick walls were pointed up and repaired, while maintaining the historic look of the building. The wood beam ceilings on all floors were in need of repair and were completed to match the character of the existing.

Besides the main coffee lounge area, the café is three levels of meeting rooms, lounge spaces, presentation areas, and conference tables equipped with TVs, screen projectors, free Wi-Fi, and charging stations. The café is free to the community, not only Capital One customers, to gather and collaborate on projects.

The exterior renovation required much planning with the Georgetown Historical Society and included new exterior doors, new signage, restoration of the floor mosaic at the building entrance, and painting of the entire exterior on one of the busiest pedestrian corners in DC.

One of the most impressive features of the space was the floating spiral staircases that connected the three floors. A thoughtful light fixture which spanned the center of the spiral added interest and made the space feel inviting.

The project was logistically complex and had a relatively tight schedule. Once construction began, several unforeseen site conditions were uncovered which caused delays to install new work. Due to the high profile nature of this project, it was imperative to maintain the opening date. As a result, multiple shifts were maintained for weeks on end to meet the completion date.