In 1910 Congress intervened and passed a law, which still stands today, to limit the height of District buildings to 130 feet. These days the Cairo is a coveted place to live. Stylish, secure, relatively affordable and located at the heart of Dupont Circle's 17th Street commercial district, the building is accessible to just about everything. Patierno once lived at the Lansburgh building on lower Eighth Street NW, but moved to the Cairo because of its location. The fees go into a special reserve fund that is periodically tapped for restoration projects.
Plans are underway to revamp the roof deck.
At the moment it is a simple plywood platform surrounded by railings, but by next year owners hope to have it upgraded and landscaped with trees and plants. There haven't been any structural changes to the roof since 1904. In its heyday at the turn of the century, the Cairo was a hotel complete with a coffee shop that sold whiskey, a bowling alley, a billiard room, a restaurant and a bakery. Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald once was listed on its registry, as was Thomas Edison. By the 1960s, the deteriorating hotel was occupied by squatters, drunks and elderly pensioners who couldn't afford to live anywhere else.