Divine Plan

AS YOU APPROACH WHAT WAS once the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Washington DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, the neoclassical exterior seems to foreshadow a religious experience. Christian Scientists may have vacated the circa 1912 building nearly a quarter of a century ago, but its history has inspired the Sydell Group to remake the space for a modern, secular communion in one of its most recent hotels, the LINE DC.

In the lobby of the LINE DC, a brass chandelier made from the original organ pipes from the First Church of Christ, Scientist, reminds guests of the building’s history. A Rake’s Bar occupies the mezzanine, and below is Erik Bruner-Yang’s concept restaurant Brothers and Sisters. GARY WILLIAMS PHOTO

Designed in collaboration with INC Architecture & Design, the LINE DC welcomes visitors to the neighborhood by making them a part of it. In each room you can find a micro library curated from the collection at Idle Time, a local bookstore. A royal blue studio tucked inside the hotel lobby houses Full Service Radio, a community-oriented broadcaster. The hotel boasts local celebrity in-house chefs and dining experiences, and the walls are hung with more than three thousand works of art by a roster of area artists, selected by Svetlana Legetic, a cofounder of the DC–based cultural events and creative agency Brightest Young Things.

Tucked inside the hotel lobby, Full Service Radio’s stand- alone recording lounge features royal blue walls, custom designed furniture by Sydell Group and INC Architecture, and work by local artists. COURTESY OF FULL SERVICE RADIO

The most striking design feature is an immense, angular brass chandelier that looms above the front lobby. Fashioned from the old church organ pipes, the piece confirms what the newly re-vamped historic hotel walls imply at every turn: by marrying old with new, as well as the local with the far-flung, the LINE DC has masterfully built a contemporary space likely to convert any guest into a design devotee.