DESIGN
Mid-Atlantic Tastemaker
PETER FILLAT AND HIS EPONYMOUS ARCHITECTURE FIRM SUCCEED IN AND AROUND HOME.
By DAVID EISEN
Peter Fillat, president & CEO of FILLAT + Architecture
Peter Fillat calls the DMV home. It’ s no surprise, then, that the bulk of his hotel projects, which he designs and builds through his namesake firm FILLAT + Architecture, are in Washington, D. C., parts of Maryland and Virginia, and some scattered in locations well outside the Beltway. His multifamily practice follows a similar geography. One of his newest works is, unsurprisingly, in Washington, D. C., in the tony neighborhood of Georgetown, where Canal House, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel recently opened under the auspices of Marriott
International, owner Douglas Development and manager TPG
Hotels & Resorts. Fillat attended the opening, along with Marriott International CEO Tony Capuano. That’ s where HOTELS Magazine caught up with him to discuss what drew him to a career in architecture, the distinctions between hotel and residential design, his recent work and how even AI is redesigning design.
HOTELS: What convinced you to want to be an architect and what do you enjoy most about it? Fillat: I’ ve always considered myself fortunate— one of those rare people who knew from a young age what they wanted to be and actually became it. I was about seven years old when the idea of becoming an architect first sparked my imagination, and that passion has guided me ever since. What I love most about what I do is the endless complexity— it’ s never the same twice. I get to collaborate with people from all walks of life, designing spaces that are deeply human. Spaces for working, for playing, for living. And if we get it right, everyone who enters— whether they’ re there to work or to relax— will find joy in the experience.
HOTELS: You design and build across myriad asset segments, including hotels and multifamily. What are the
Sept / Oct 2025 hotelsmag. com 53