"The Watergate, a unified complex consisting of six inter-connected buildings designed and constructed between 1960 and 1971, is one of the most well-known works of architecture in Washington, D.C., possessing significance not only for its political association with the scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, but also architecturally as an outstanding and innovative example of the Modern Movement in the city.

The scale and mixed-use program of Watergate required the formation of Washington's first private-initiative Planned Unit Development, a new and largely untested idea in urban planning. The building is a master work of prominent European Modernist Luigi Moretti, one of the most important twentieth-century Italian architects, and represents the only example of the architect's work in the United States. Other master artists employed at Watergate include acclaimed Washington landscape architect Boris Timchenko and noted sculptor and muralist Pietro Lazzari.

Furthermore, execution of the complex, curvilinear design exhibited at Watergate precipitated the use of a computer to efficiently calculate measurements of building elements, making Watergate one of the earliest known examples of computer-aided design in the country.

Completed in 1971, Watergate is one of the most well-known buildings in the city of Washington, D.C, and in the nation owing to its association with the political scandal that brought about the August 8, 1974 resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. As the location of the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Headquarters that led to the exposure by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of a complex and covert plot leading directly to the President, Watergate was catapulted onto the world media stage and its name almost immediately became synonymous with the scandal. The association between "Watergate" and political scandal ultimately became so universally understood that it earned a permanent place in the American lexicon, as seen in the application of the suffix "-gate" to any major scandal involving a high-ranking political, public, or celebrity figure. Today, Watergate is one of a handful of buildings throughout the world to be defined in most standard English dictionaries, along with, perhaps appropriately, the White House and the Capitol."

Above information taken from D.C HISTORIC PRESERVATION REVIEW BOARD APPLICATION FOR HISTORIC LANDMARK, submitted by The Committee to Preserve the Watergate Heritage, Inc. Photographs courtesy Carrie Albee, EHT Traceries, Inc.

Link to related materials:

D.C HISTORIC PRESERVATION REVIEW BOARD APPLICATION FOR HISTORIC LANDMARK. Summary in .doc (Word) format, download here

D.C HISTORIC PRESERVATION REVIEW BOARD APPLICATION FOR HISTORIC LANDMARK. Full application in .PDF format, download here (40 pages)

Recent Past Preservation Network letter supporting application for historic landmark status, by Christine Madrid French, president. Letter dated February 2005, .doc format.