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Watergate complex
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===Planning=== The Watergate complex was developed by the Italian firm SGI.<ref name="Lindsay">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/1754.html |last=Lindsay |first=Drew |title=The Watergate: The Building That Changed Washington |magazine=Washingtonian |date=October 1, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602105949/http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/1754.html |archive-date=June 2, 2010 }}</ref><ref name="RomanGiant">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940272,00.html |title=Roman Giant |magazine=Time |date=January 25, 1963 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824035448/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940272,00.html |archive-date=August 24, 2013 }}</ref> The company purchased the {{convert|10|acre|m2}} that belonged to the defunct [[Chesapeake and Ohio Canal]] in February 1960 for [[United States dollar|$]]10 million.<ref name="Lindsay" /><ref name="RomanGiant" /><ref name="Willmann">{{cite news |last=Willmann |first=John B. |title=Foggy Bottom Gas House Site To Get Facelift |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 22, 1961}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/06/17/focus11.html |last=Livingston |first=Mike |title=Watergate: The Name That Branded More Than A Building |newspaper=Washington Business Journal |date=June 14, 2002 |quote=At least one source claims the land was purchased for just $7 million. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223075238/http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/06/17/focus11.html |archive-date=February 23, 2009 }}</ref> The project was announced on October 21, 1960.<ref name="Willmann" /> [[Luigi Moretti]] of the [[Sapienza University of Rome|University of Rome]] was the chief architect, and Milton Fischer of the D.C.-based firm of Corning, Moore, Elmore and Fischer the associate architect.<ref name="Livingston" /><ref name="Wheeler" /><ref name="AIAGuide">{{cite book |last1=Moeller |first1=Gerard Martin |last2=Weeks |first2=Christopher |title=AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C. |edition=4th |location= Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-8018-8468-3}}</ref><ref name="Lindsay" /><ref name="Willmann" /><ref name="EisenTouch">{{cite news |last=Eisen |first=Jack |title=Architect Plans 'Touch of Rome' |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 6, 1963}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Architect Milton Fischer Dies: Assisted on Foxhall, Watergate |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=October 6, 1999}}</ref><ref name="WillmanShudders">{{cite news |last=Willman |first=John B. |title=Watergate's Architect Shudders at Conformity |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 27, 1965}}</ref><ref name="NewHotel">{{cite news |title=New Hotel and Offices in Capital |newspaper=The New York Times |date=April 16, 1967}}</ref> The apartment buildings included two-story units on the first and second floors, while the top-floor units had private rooftop [[Terrace (building)|terraces]] and [[fireplace]]s.<ref name="MacPhersonStatus">{{cite news |last=MacPherson |first=Myra |title=Foggy Bottom Takes Place Among Addresses of Status |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 25, 1966}}</ref><ref name="Livingston" /> The design for the entire complex also envisioned an electronic security system so extensive that the press claimed "intruders will have difficulty getting onto the grounds undetected."<ref name="Livingston" /> Boris V. Timchenko, a noted D.C.-based [[landscape architect]], supervised the design of the grounds, which included more than 150 planters, tiers of fountains designed to create sounds like a waterfall, landscaped rooftop terraces, swimming pools, and a {{convert|7|acre|m2|adj=on}} park.<ref name="Livingston" /><ref name="NewHotel" /> Landscape features such as planters would also be used to create privacy barriers between apartments.<ref name="EisenTouch" /> The complex was the first [[mixed-use development]] in the District of Columbia,<ref name="Sanchez">Sanchez, Carlos. "Watergate Blends Luxury, Convenience." ''The Washington Post.'' March 23, 1991.</ref><ref name="Cube1">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/11/25/story1.html |last=Cubé |first=Christine |title=Watergate Hotel for Sale |magazine=Washington Business Journal |date=November 22, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604091951/http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/11/25/story1.html |archive-date=June 4, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/05/20/story8.html |last=Cubé |first=Christine |title=Giuseppe Cecchi: The Private Developer |magazine=Washington Business Journal |date=May 17, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509235247/http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2002/05/20/story8.html |archive-date=May 9, 2010 }}</ref> and was intended to help define the area as a business and residential rather than industrial district.<ref name="NewHotel" /> The Watergate complex was intended to be a "city within a city", and provide so many amenities that residents would not need to leave. Among these were a 24-hour receptionist, room service provided by the Watergate Hotel, health club, restaurants, shopping mall, medical and dental offices, grocery, pharmacy, post office, and liquor store.<ref name="Sanchez" /> At the time, it was also the largest renewal effort in the District of Columbia undertaken solely with private funds.<ref name="Clopton" /> Initially, the project was to cost $75 million and consist of six 16-story buildings comprising 1,400 apartment units, a 350-room hotel, office space, shops, 19 luxury "villas" ([[townhouses]]), and three-level underground parking for 1,250 vehicles.<ref name="Wheeler" /><ref name="Willmann" /><ref name="EisenTouch" /> The Watergate's curved structures were designed to emulate two nearby elements. The first was the proposed [[Inner Loop (Washington, D.C.)|Inner Loop Expressway]], a curving freeway expected to be built just in front of the Watergate within the next decade.<ref name="Livingston" />{{efn|Three circumferential [[beltway]]s had been proposed for the Washington, D.C., area in 1956. The innermost beltway, which would have formed a flattened oval centered on the Kennedy Center/Watergate complex in the west, running southwest along what is currently [[Ohio Drive (Washington, D.C.)|Ohio Drive SW]] until it linked with the Southwest Freeway portion of [[Interstate 395 (District of Columbia-Virginia)|I-395]], north along I-395 to [[K Street (Washington, D.C.)|L Street NW]], and then west along a tunnel beneath K Street NW to join near the western nexus with the [[Whitehurst Freeway]] and [[Interstate 66#District of Columbia 2|I-66]]—completing the loop. Two decades of protest led to the cancellation of all but the I-395 portion of the plan in 1977.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Levey |first1=Bob |last2=Levey |first2=Jane Freundel |title=End of The Roads |newspaper=The Washington Post |date= November 26, 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Schrag |first=Zachary M. |title=The Freeway Fight in Washington, D.C.: The Three Sisters Bridge in Three Administrations |journal=Journal of Urban History |volume=30 |number=5 |date=July 2004|doi=10.1177/0096144204265171 |s2cid=144196119 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mohl |first=Raymond A. |title=The Interstates and the Cities: The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Freeway Revolt, 1966–1973 |journal=Journal of Policy History |volume=20 |number=2 |year=2008|pages=193–226 |doi=10.1353/jph.0.0014 |s2cid=154486374 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Schrag |first=Zachary M. |title=The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-8018-8246-X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Mark H. |title=Interstate: Express Highway Politics, 1939–1989 |edition=Revised |location=Knoxville, Tennessee |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-87049-671-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Eisen |first=Jack |title=Md. Vetoes I-95 Extension Into District |newspaper=The Washington Post |date= July 13, 1973}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Feaver |first=Douglas B. |title=Three Sisters Highway Project Is Killed – Again |newspaper=The Washington Post |date= May 13, 1977}}</ref>}} The second was the nearby Kennedy Center, then in the planning stage and whose original design was supposed to be curvilinear.<ref name="AIAGuide" /><ref name="Lindsay" /> Although the Kennedy Center later adopted a rectangular shape for cost reasons, the Watergate complex's design did not change.<ref name="Lindsay" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gutheim |first1=Frederick Albert |last2=Lee |first2=Antoinette Josephine |title=Worthy of the Nation: Washington, D.C., From L'Enfant to the National Capital Planning Commission |edition=2nd |location=Baltimore |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-8018-8328-8}}</ref> Incidentally, the curved structures would also give apartment dwellers an excellent view of the Potomac River.<ref name="EisenTouch" /> Because of the curves in the structure, the Watergate complex was one of the first major construction projects in the United States in which computers played a significant role in the design work.<ref name="Livingston" /><ref name="Sanchez" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Computers Help Lay Out Plan at Watergate |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 14, 1964}}</ref>
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