Watermark Hotel Izakaya Mural Installation, Tysons Corner
Some spaces want art that feels new. The Watermark Izakaya needed art that felt like it was always there. JLL developed the Watermark Hotel in Tysons Corner, Virginia for Capital One, a property that includes a Japanese-inspired restaurant designed by Studio 3877. We were brought in to design and execute the mural component of the space. The brief pointed in one direction: aged, layered, and alive.
Layered and Lived-In
We used a multimedia installation approach. Wheat paste, tags, and piece graffiti, all laid down to suggest different hands touching the wall at different points in time. Nothing was too clean or too finished. The goal was a wall that could have existed somewhere in Tokyo for two decades. Then we brought in the final layer: a mural interpretation of Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa, one of the most recognized images in the history of Japanese art. Placing it on top of the gritty, built-up base created a tension that works. High and low. Polished and raw. All on the same wall.
Why It Fit the Space
Izakayas sit somewhere between a neighborhood bar and a serious kitchen. Studio 3877 was building that world inside a Virginia hotel, and the walls needed to feel like they came from somewhere real. The rough textures and graffiti elements brought the gritty side of that history into the room. The Hokusai wave brought the finer layer. Together they create a wall with a past, even if that past was built in a matter of weeks.
We completed the installation from the end of February through early March 2025. Most mural work asks for polish. This one asked for the opposite. Getting that balance right, raw enough to feel authentic, deliberate enough to feel intentional, takes a specific kind of discipline. The Watermark gave us the space to work it out.
