Once at the forefront of D.C. development, can the (in)famous complex adapt for a new generation" The day after one March snowstorm that kept government workers at home, the Watergate Complex?s concrete, toothy exterior looks the same as it does every day. But inside the courtyard, behind the defensive walls that shield it from the street, visitors can see something far more affable?small snowmen dot the rolling lawns, evidence of a snow day well spent.
?There?s kids now at the Watergate,? says Dale Johnson, the owner of Watergate Gallery & Frame Design, which is located in the lower-level shops at the Washington, D.C., complex. She?s worked at the Watergate since the 1970s and established her own business there in 1986. ?There used to be, and then there weren?t, and now there are again.?
The word ?Watergate? has become interchangeable with scandal, the suffix -gate applied to words like ?wine? or ?Lewinsky? or ?deflate? to mean that something has gone awry.
But to people who live in Washington, D.C., the Watergate is more than a metonym. It?s a very real place?a 10-acre complex with six buildings that look like no other in the nation?s capital. When it was built in the 1960s, it was the first mixed-use development in the District, with cooperative apartments, a fancy hotel, offices, a supermarket, a post office, a florist, a liquor store, and more. As politicians and other movers and shakers flocked to it, the Watergate quickly became synonymous with glamou...