Power, marble, and permanence on Penn Quarter's most storied corner

The columns come first. Massive, Corinthian, rising from the sidewalk at the corner of Penn Quarter with the kind of civic authority that only Washington architecture can summon. Riggs Washington DC occupies the former Riggs National Bank building, a neoclassical landmark that once held the accounts of presidents and diplomats. The transformation from financial institution to luxury hotel preserved the grandeur without sanitizing it. Original bank vaults, soaring ceilings, ornamental plasterwork, and monumental stonework remain intact throughout the public spaces, lending the interiors a gravity that feels earned rather than staged. This is a hotel that wears its history in the walls themselves.

The 181 guest rooms and suites translate that institutional scale into something intimate and residential. Interiors draw on a palette of deep greens, warm neutrals, and brass accents that nod to the building's banking heritage without becoming a theme. Oversized windows frame views of the surrounding streetscape, and bathrooms are finished in marble with custom amenities. Suites expand into proper living spaces, some incorporating original architectural details unique to their footprint within the building. The design throughout balances period richness with contemporary restraint, creating rooms that feel both considered and comfortable.

Cafe Riggs occupies the former banking hall, a soaring double-height space anchored by the original marble columns and coffered ceiling. The restaurant draws from a European brasserie sensibility, serving a menu rooted in seasonal ingredients with French and American influences across breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is one of the more striking dining rooms in the city, where the architecture does as much work as the menu. Silver Lyan, the hotel's bar from the team behind the acclaimed Lyaness in London, takes a different approach entirely. Housed in the old vault space below street level, the bar offers a cocktail program built around proprietary ingredients and an inventive, research-driven philosophy. The contrast between the two venues captures something essential about the hotel's character: reverence for the building's past alongside a willingness to be genuinely creative within it.

Riggs Washington DC sits steps from the National Mall, the Smithsonian museums, and the cultural institutions that define the capital. Penn Quarter places guests at the intersection of government, the arts, and the restaurant scene that has transformed this stretch of the city over the past two decades. The neighborhood rewards walking, with galleries, theaters, and landmarks all within close reach. The hotel's position feels deliberate, not just convenient but central to the rhythms of Washington life.

What stays with you is the weight of the place. Not heaviness, but substance. The floors that have absorbed a century of consequence. The vault doors that still swing on their original hinges. Riggs Washington DC is a hotel that understands the difference between decoration and identity, and it chooses identity every time.