History Repeats Itself…Even Better

DC Coast restaurant is a rebirth of the great American Art-Deco style, offering beautiful architectural details inside and out. In keeping with the architect’s original design, owners Gus DiMillo, David Wizenberg, and Jeff Tunks sought to preserve much of the building’s distinguishing architecture in their conception of the restaurant, which opened in June 1998.

Located on Fourteenth and K Streets, the street-level space of the Tower Building had been vacant since 1981. Not one upscale establishment had a vested interest in this area in many years. Businesses moved to other locations as business professionals frequented the area less and less. It was not until the former Franklin Square Association began to invest time and funds in the late 1980s and early 1990s to revitalize this area that DiMillo, Wizenberg, and Tunks saw the potential of giving life back to this downtown area. “Developing Fourteenth and K Streets was vital to bringing the city back to what it once was in the golden years,” says Washington native Gus DiMillo. The owners of DC Coast could not resist the challenge when they learned of the building’s historical and cultural significance.

The Tower Building is the earliest Art Deco office building in Washington, DC, constructed three years after the 1925 Art Deco Exhibition in Paris, which popularized the architectural style. It is the only office building in Washington that typifies the Art Deco skyscraper form. In Washington, where height was a limitation, the architect of the Tower Building aspired to capture the same design qualities that were beginning to develop in New York. The restaurant space was originally designed for the occupancy of a bank. A Western Union telegraph office occupied that spot.

Qualified as a landmark both in the District of Columbia and on the National Register of Historical Places, DC Coast restaurant embodies the distinctive touches of a type, period, and method of construction representative of the work of its original designer and master architect, Robert F. Beresford (1879-1966). Most of Beresford’s work, however, was in housing, which, beginning in the 1930s, was in demand. Washington homebuyers, conservative in their architectural tastes, preferred colonial revival. Beresford was a confirmed traditionalist in residential architecture, but in commercial design he preferred the unusual. With the highly artistic value of his work and gaining prominence among his peers, Beresford began constructing some of the most unique architectural designs during this period. The Mayflower Hotel on Connecticut Avenue was one of his first commercial projects.

The Tower Building exemplifies the rare Art Deco style applied to Washington office buildings of the time. Only a few were built, and Beresford’s individual, simple, and unusual structure brought him praise. To preserve Beresford’s work, the owners of DC Coast set out to restore the building’s windows and doorways to their original splendor. The main entrance, with its monumental doors and strong, bold circular lines, which are repeated in a similar fashion within the restaurant, has been recreated.

In its own distinctive identity, a vestigial image of a Greek mermaid draws you into the restaurant. Your eyes are carried down the captivating serpentine-shaped bar and drawn to the next surprise. The 35-foot ceilings, large oval mirrors, circular booths, grand plaster columns, and preserved molding enliven the bar and restaurant. A selection of plush deep purple-colored furniture is arranged in the front of the restaurant for more private conversations. The light from enormous 1930s-reproduction lanterns falls into the room to complement the other motifs. Lastly and most noticeably, a contemporary open kitchen with copper top hoods is exposed for the diner’s entertainment, a dominating feature that has distinguished DC Coast from all other restaurants in Washington, DC.

These three men – Gus DiMillo, David Wizenberg, and Jeff Tunks – set out to make a dream come true, not only in having their first restaurant together, but in giving something back to the city that gave them their first chance. It was their mission to bring a strong sense of place and worth to Fourteenth and K Streets again. What was once an attempt to bring change to the community has developed into a cultural lifestyle for downtown Washington.

DC Coast restaurant thanks you for helping us make it happen.