“If these walls could talk . . . “ Perhaps no location exemplifies that expression more than Watergate, the six-building Washington, D.C. complex at the heart of the 1972 scandal that brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon. The massive modernist site is famous for a host of other reasons, though, too, such as a residents’ roster that reads like a Who’s Who of American Politics and a resume boasting a cadre of onscreen credits including the just-released “Wonder Woman 1984.”
The highly anticipated sequel to 2017’s “Wonder Woman” hit theatres and the HBO Max streaming platform simultaneously on Christmas Day. While critics haven’t been overly kind, the flick set a pandemic theatrical release record of $16.7 million in domestic opening weekend box office ticket sales, thereby securing the production of a third installment of the series.
As the title suggests, “Wonder Woman 1984” takes place in the legwarmer-wearing, Pop Tart-eating, fanny pack-toting world of the mid-80s, where Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) works as a cultural anthropologist and archeologist at Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum, all the while fighting local crime as her superhero alter ego, Wonder Woman.
Largely lensed in the D.C. area, memorable scenes were captured at the now-defunct Landmark Mall in Alexandria, Virginia, L’Enfant Plaza Metro station in the Southwest Federal Center business district, and Watergate, which Diana calls home in the movie.
Situated on ten landscaped acres overlooking the Potomac River in the District’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, Watergate was designed by Italian architect Luigi Moretti for the Italian real estate development firm Società Generale Immobiliare (SGI). A mixed-use complex, the sprawling property is comprised of three cooperative apartment buildings, two office buildings, a luxury hotel, and a retail plaza.
Ground was broken on the project in 1964. The first building to be completed, Watergate East, housing apartment units, opened its doors in 1965. The Watergate Hotel followed in 1967 and the final building was finished in 1971.
For more Dirt on Watergate from “Wonder Woman 1984,” click over to the gallery.