ABSTRACT
A multi-discipline team including CallisonRTKL, Gachot Studios, Parts and Labor Design, and Sagmeister & Walsh worked with founder Katherine Lo to create Eaton DC to use hospitality to promote social change. The hotel includes work spaces for members and collective spaces for locals. This new experiment in hospitality doubles as a center for progressive causes serving as a live-music venue, a cinema, artist studios, and host to other activism-oriented events. The intention was to build a community and have multiple platforms under one roof such as Eaton RADIO, a community-based radio station located in the “found” space under the stairs and the Radical Library, curated by Teaching for Change, a local social justice non-profit, that includes books on art, music, philosophy, environmentalism, and politics. The activist agenda of the hotel extends past the duration of a stay with a follow-up survey that inquires if your time at Eaton DC encouraged you to become more active in your local community.
