Photograph by Ethan Yusheng Tian
One of Susan B. Haight’s fondest memories at The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Washington, D.C., came when a blizzard left behind 100 inches of snow on the city in 2010. “One of my neighbors called and said, ‘Drop everything and come to the bar,’” she recalls, laughing. Everyone came dressed as they were—which led to residents whiling away the hours in fuzzy slippers at the hotel’s Quadrant Bar & Lounge. “It was an amazing impromptu gathering.”
Community wasn’t the top priority when Haight became one of the earliest buyers in Marriott International’s first luxury-branded residence, which debuted in 2000. “I mainly thought it would be an investment,” says Haight, who even adorned a hard hat to walk through construction. “D.C. didn’t have anything like this.”
The amenities appealed to Haight, given the demands of her career: She worked in real estate development, first as an executive at the Rouse Company and then with her own consulting firm, Retail Connections, which found her traveling nonstop. In her Marriott residence, she found a sense of much-needed calm and retreat. “I felt very well-cared for,” she says. “I can’t say enough about the staff—they’re remarkable. You chat every day, and they become like your family.”
Through her new home, she also discovered a new passion project. As an expert in refreshing neighborhoods—and a big fan of public libraries—she set her sights on updating the library near the Residences, which she found out of date and understaffed. It took 10 years of lobbying, funding, and zoning, but the West End Neighborhood Library reopened directly across from the Residences in 2017. Haight now serves as president of the West End Library Friends and co-chair of the DC Public Library Foundation. “I’m all things library,” she says.
It’s not her only passion project in the area. She also co-founded the Foggy Bottom West End Village, an organization to help seniors reside at home as long as they can. Living solo at 77, Haight is keenly grateful for the ease that the Residences afford her during this chapter of her life. She looks forward to many more blissful mornings on her balcony in the South Building, enjoying coffee and reading the newspaper while overlooking the courtyard’s dramatic waterfall.
Time has flown in the quarter-century since she moved in. “No, it can’t possibly be!” she jokes. “A lot of us first-timers are still here.”
