Find out how recent design and dining transformations to the convention center are making DC events even more extraordinary.
The Walter E. Washington Convention Center—and the neighborhood growing up around the venue—just got a lot more exciting. Modern, user-friendly interiors, new restaurants, bars and markets, an eye-catching streetscape, and creative retail partners close-by mean even more reasons to choose the nation’s capital for your next event.
Modern Venue
The interior of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center has never looked better—or been more functional. The new design was expertly executed to ensure attendees can better connect, learn and network while they’re here. Highlights include open meet-connect lounges (stocked with power outlets and USB ports), a movable putting green, café-style bar tables with iPads, and seating areas surrounded by artist landscapes. Soon, improvements will stretch outside the center, where a highly conceptual streetscape—featuring new lighting, art and retail kiosks—is underway.
Modern Dining
The Convention Center also recently unveiled DC Eats, a new food and beverage brand reflecting the venue’s commitment to creating an experience for visitors that embodies Washington, DC’s diversity, cultural heritage and burgeoning culinary scene. As a result, planners and attendees can expect catering menus and retail food concepts that have an emphasis on local, quality, convenience, health and personalization. Also coming soon, the Center’s Grand Lobby will undergo an expansive renovation that will include mobile dining options and a new market at the L Street Entrance of the building.
Modern Retail Meets a Historic Landmark
A few blocks south of the Convention Center sits the new Apple Carnegie Library, a one-of-a-kind part retail, part creative experience in which attendees can play, learn and discover. The restoration and revitalization of this 1903 Beaux-Arts style building is Apple’s most extensive historic restoration project to-date. The result is a modern, arts-filled, tech-infused retail store and gathering space that offers visitors a highly engaging blend of the old and the new.
Explore what’s new and exciting for meeting planners in the heart of Washington, DC.