Aug 24, 2007  |  By: ZACK ROSEN  | COMMENTS     

For more than a decade, the Woodward & Lothrop (“Woodies”) department store at the corner of 10th and G, N.W., has sat empty, leaving many city residents to wonder what was being done with their beloved Washington landmark. Now, adding to the revitalization of commercial downtown D.C., Brooklyn-based design store West Elm has opened a flagship location there, restoring the historic building in the process.

Fixing up Woodies began two years ago, when West Elm was shopping around the country for a spot to put its newest location. While touring the Washington suburbs, officials asked instead to be shown the newly desirable area around Metro Center and realized they had an opportunity to bolster an up-and-coming neighborhood.

“There’s a lot of lofts and apartments [being built] around here, a lot of gentrification happening,” says West Elm’s vice president of stores, Michael Dadario, who is gay. “We came down and saw this excellent opportunity to open a store, and the building is pretty fabulous.”

The city of Washington was also supportive of bringing new shopping destinations to downtown. The City Council had set aside $30 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds, which are used to finance new local retail and are paid back through building taxes, and $4.9 million of that was earmarked for the West Elm store and the restoration of the Woodies building. Mayor Fenty himself cut the ribbon during the store’s grand opening ceremony on Aug. 21.

“I think that really speaks to the fact that the store will draw in shoppers,” says Kate Mulhearn, West Elm’s public relations manager. “It will diversify the offerings downtown and bring customers back.”

THOUGH WEST ELM prides itself on a spare, almost Danish aesthetic, the Woodies building is notable for its lavish detail. Stepping through the original stone façade of the old department store, the building’s cavernous interior strikes the visitor as a sort of home furnishings bat cave.

Organized into several stories of platforms, West Elm’s minimalist beds, desks and tables are offset by the space’s original art deco detailing of molded plaster columns, original floors of pink Tennessean marble and the District’s first publicly rated fireproof staircase, crafted of wrought iron.

“The fact that we’ve been able to restore so much of this place creates a very classic backdrop for our modern furniture and I think that juxtaposition is really cool,” says Mulhearn. “We’ve always strived to have that look — exposed brick and hardwood floors — but adding the elements of the classic details is really appealing.”

Of course the new location, now West Elm’s largest, would mean very little if the product wasn’t compelling enough to stand up to the ornate surroundings. West Elm boasts a very clear design sense, using clean lines and a cool color palette to create a sense of welcoming austerity, or an opium den by way of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The store’s popular “overlapping squares” design, which look like Celtic knots with right angles, is used as the backboard for several bed-frames and day beds, most of which come in a variety of heights and colors. Though Dadario himself is particularly fond of the store’s zebra rug, he also notes that the products can help the average shopper keep abreast of the latest in home furnishings trends.

“The big trend is gray,” he says. “Grey is the new khaki, you’ll see it throughout the store. And red is always great for the fall.”