Host Your Event

Graced with grand windows, intricate ironwork, and lofty ceilings, the landmark Franklin School, home of Planet Word, is a uniquely stunning venue for your most important personal and corporate events. What memories will you create here?

 

Request a space

 

View our Private Events Guide

Featured Spaces

The Bloomberg Philanthropies
Great Hall

The Bloomberg Philanthropies Great Hall is the architectural centerpiece of the Franklin School and Planet Word’s showcase venue both day and night. The 4,800-LED globe that anchors the Spoken World exhibit becomes a stunning chandelier as it rises at the turn of a key up to the towering 22-foot-high ceiling. With fourteen-foot windows overlooking Franklin Square, trompe l’oeil frescoes, and a historic proscenium arch, the elegant, versatile Great Hall is unlike any other event space in Washington.

Standard rates
Weekend: $10,500; Weekday: $9,400

Non-profit rates
Weekend: $8,900; Weekday: $8,400

AV: Programmable chandelier, wireless microphones, built-in speakers, WiFi

 

The Mansard Room

Original nineteenth-century exposed beams, wood floors, and frescoed walls make this an unforgettable venue for meetings and celebrations of all sorts. Under a soaring mansard roof at the top of the Franklin School, this space can be configured for elegant dinners, performances, meetings, or receptions. The Mansard Room can be combined with the Rooftop Terrace for indoor/outdoor events.

Standard rates
Weekend: $9,350; Weekday: $8,500

Non-profit rates
Weekend: $7,950; Weekday: $7,500

AV: Decorative pendant lighting, color tunable cove lighting, 165” LCD video wall w/ HDMI, wireless microphones, built-in speakers, WiFi

The Rooftop Terrace

Featuring views north and west across verdant Franklin Square and the rooftops of D.C.’s K Street corridor, the Rooftop Terrace is a gorgeous outdoor venue for pre-dinner cocktails, post-dinner dessert, or a sunset reception. The Rooftop Terrace can be combined with the Mansard Room for indoor/outdoor events.

Standard rates
Weekend: $2,750; Weekday: $2,500

Non-profit rates
Weekend: $2,350; Weekday: $2,200

AV: Speakers, WiFi

More Spaces

The AT&T Plaza

Anchored by Speaking Willow, an interactive sculpture from renowned artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, the AT&T plaza is a ground-level courtyard oasis just off K Street. The AT&T Plaza can be combined with the Friedman Family Auditorium for pre-performance or post-performance receptions.

AV: Speakers, WiFi

The Friedman Family Auditorium

This 150-seat, beautifully appointed auditorium has its own entrance right off the AT&T Plaza. The space includes a dedicated AV booth and a green room.

AV: HD projector, architectural and theatrical lighting, large projection screen, built-in speakers, WiFi

Welcome Lobby

Our delightful Welcome Lobby makes a flexible gathering place: its welcome desks can double as bars and the glass-enclosed entry vestibule can serve as a check-in area. The space features graceful details like the iconic arches that define the Franklin School, and terrazzo floors embedded with a swirling design of written symbols from the past to the present. The Welcome Lobby can be combined with the AT&T Plaza or the Friedman Family Auditorium for larger events, or can serve as a pre-dinner cocktail space when combined with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Great Hall.

AV: WiFi

Request Form

Request to book a space

Interested in hosting your event at the museum? Please familiarize yourself with our Private Events Guide for information about our spaces in addition to room rates and preferred vendors, and fill out the form below. We’ll be in touch shortly to help schedule your event. For questions about the event spaces, email [email protected].

Please note that due to administrative overhead Planet Word does not book events occurring within 21 days. Additionally, we do not host youth birthday parties or events with on-site fundraising.

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    Perhaps ironically, the word “sesquipedalophobia” means “the fear of long words.”

  • Did you know?

    “Contronyms” are words that contain multiple meanings that are complete opposites of each other. For example, “oversight” means both “the action of overseeing something” and “a failure to notice something.”

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    There are over 7,000 languages worldwide, but more than half the world’s population speaks only 23 of these languages.

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    The first entirely artificial language was the Lingua Ignota, a private mystical cant recorded in the 12th century by St. Hildegard of Bingen.

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    The 10 most-used letters in English are E, A, R, I, O, T, N, S, L, and C.

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    Eels, llamas, and aardvarks, ooh my! In English, there are only four letters that appear as double letters at the beginning of a word: A, E, L, and O.

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    A “deipnosophist” is a person who’s really good at making conversation at the dinner table.

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    It was tense.

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    Unquestionably.

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    What did the intransitive verb say when told it was pretty? (Answer: Nothing. Intransitive verbs can’t take complements.)

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    What does an island and the letter T have in common? (Answer: They’re both in the middle of water.)

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    What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? (Answer: Short)

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    What starts with an E, ends with an E, and contains just one letter? (Answer: An envelope!)

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    What begins with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it? (Answer: A teapot!)

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    What’s in centuries, hours, and years, but not minutes, days, or seconds? (Answer: The letter R!)

  • Quote them on it

    “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx

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    “The past is always tense, the future perfect.” — Zadie Smith

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    “If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” — Toni Morrison

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    “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies...The man who never reads lives only once.” — George R.R. Martin

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    “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” — Nelson Mandela