Prior to creating Building Knowledge, Andrea Mones established and served as Historic Preservation and Fine Arts Officer for the Public Buildings Service, U.S. General Services Administration, in Washington, D.C. As the owner’s representative and Project Executive for design, Andrea managed the outsourcing of the 176,000 s.f. 1832 marble palazzo-style building. It was designed by Robert Mills and Thomas U. Walter, both architects of the U.S. Capitol. Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group was selected as the developer.

Andrea chaired the selection and lease negotiations and collaborated with the developer’s design and construction teams. She led all historic preservation aspects of this four-story office building’s conversion into a four star hotel and restaurant. A masonry bearing structure, it accommodated two new elevator pits and “drop in” restrooms for all hotel rooms. This design solution enabled the original 18-inch thick walls and 12 inch deep ceilings to remain intact and required only two four-inch cores through the floors for plumbing lines. Waivers and variances from code, occupancy, and exiting solutions were creatively developed to ensure the retention of monumental open spiral staircases, 12-foot wide corridors ringing the building, and transomed corridor doors. The $18 million budget transformed it into a hotel. The Hotel Monaco received the District of Columbia’s highest award for an historic preservation project in Washington, D.C. for 2005.