From the street, nothing much distinguishes it: just another posh estate in Georgetown. Except that this house, a stately yellow number with dark shutters, represents a bold wager on the ultra-luxury market: a short-term rental that lists for between $15,000 and $25,000 a night. Heads of state, diplomats, CEOs, titans of tech—this is where they’ll crash. Need a private jet booking? Sushi prepared by a Michelin-starred chef? An acupuncture or massage session? No whim shall go unattended.
That’s the idea, anyway, as envisioned by the LXIV Group, the hospitality venture that purchased the property in 2022 for $8.958 million and embarked on an exacting renovation. Georgetown residents Ezra and Jessica Glass, who own the design/build practice Atelier Verre, cofounded the group after noting the dearth of European-style villas on the rental market in the US, let alone villas with on-site staff (Ezra previously owned a lifestyle management business). What if they combined the service of a luxury hotel with the privacy and spaciousness of an estate? The Georgetown house was sitting on the market and needed work—“You had to use some imagination to see what it would be,” Ezra says—but when they glimpsed the backyard garden they were sold: “We were like, Oh my God.”
For there they discovered a sanctuary that seemed a world apart: ivy-covered walls, trickling fountains, boxwoods, a pool, and a greenhouse. Rose Greely, the first licensed woman architect in DC, designed the gardens and wrote about the project for House Beautiful in 1933. (Perry Wheeler, the landscape architect behind the Rose Garden at the White House, later updated them.) Greely’s client, Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, was herself a pioneer: A Republican representative from Illinois, she was one of the first women in the House of Representatives. In 1929, she had created the estate by merging a “two-family frame house” and a “quaint little white cottage two doors away,” as the Washington Herald reported at the time, and then “built a connecting link between [them].” The result, as the paper reported, was “perhaps the most original and delightful house in the old city, which has newly become Washington’s Mayfair.”
Hints of that period charm linger even as the Glasses modernized the 11,000-square-foot structure. A skylight above a new spiral staircase lets light trickle down into the interior. An elevator services the upstairs floors, formerly a warren of bedrooms but now reimagined as three king and three queen suites. The finishes are luxe: Phillip Jeffries wallcoverings; an Andrea Braescu ginkgo leaf chandelier; a Hellman Chang sofa (Eric Chang, a Georgia designer, spearheaded the project’s interior design); and walls finished with Matteo Brioni plaster. The gardens are home to a newly outfitted spa house with a sauna and hammam, a sunroom with a hot and cold plunge, a ballroom with a vaulted ceiling, and a greenhouse brimming with orchids and lime trees. And, on a balcony off a new yoga room in the main house, an unexpected historic addition: the 19th-century railings from the Corcoran School of Art, which were removed from that building during a recent renovation and repurposed here.
Josh, an Alexa-like system, will cater to the whims of the guests: lowering the shades, ordering a car, or whatever fancy might strike; staff members will receive an alert on their phones or watches. In case of a security breach, a secret passageway with a spiral staircase can shuttle high-profile individuals to safety. And, if they’re smitten with the Christofle flatware, say, or the bedding by Duxiana, guests will be able to point and click their phones to purchase it.
Now that it’s been renovated, will they come? The ultra-luxury market appears to be thriving. The Four Seasons, a couple blocks away and a primary competitor, recently finished a $15 million renovation that included the overhaul of 10 suites targeted toward heads of state and dignitaries. The Royal, at 4,000 square feet, is the largest; rates for the suites range from $2,000 to $25,000 depending on the season. Demand peaks during high-profile events: the inauguration, for instance, or the IMF’s annual meeting. But Georgetown itself is also enjoying a wave of renewed vitality. Nancy Silverton and Stephen Starr’s Osteria Mozza just opened in the old Dean and DeLuca space on M Street. And a hotel by José Andrés, the Bazaar House, complete with various dining options, is forthcoming.
The Glasses envision adding to their villa empire: they’re looking to close on another property in Los Angeles before the end of the year. Chicago, New York, London, and Paris will be next. If, that is, their bold bet in Georgetown pays off.
