Take a Look at the Striking Watergate Complex from ‘Wonder Woman 1984’

Watergate Office Building

Watergate’s unique curvilinear architecture, which not only affords views of the Potomac from virtually every unit but makes for a striking edifice, proved difficult to implement. As project manager Jim Roberts of Magazine Brothers Construction Corporation explained to The Washington Post in 1964, “We had to face the fact that there are no continuous straight lines anywhere — horizontally on the floors or vertically on the façade. Not only were there many different curves on every floor, but no two floors had a façade exactly alike.”

Joseph Rodata details the elaborate measures the construction crew had to take to execute the daunting project in his book “The Watergate: Inside America’s Most Infamous Address.” He says, ”Coordinates therefore had to be calculated separately for each segment of each curving wall on each floor, plus variations for unique balconies. One engineer spent more than six weeks working out the curves for the building’s second floor alone. More than 2,200 exterior wall panels needed to be made in 100 different sizes and shapes. Another 80,000 square feet of ‘window walls’ were needed, in 596 different configurations.” As difficult as the construction process was, the end result was worth it. Watergate is an architectural masterpiece!

One of the most exclusive addresses in D.C., amenities abound at the Watergate. The complex has been called a “city within a city,” and it truly is. With underground parking, countless shops and boutiques, a plethora of restaurants, a grocery store, a post office, a bank, and numerous medical offices, residents and guests have very little reason to ever leave the grounds. The buildings are also manned by doormen and boast 24-hour concierge service. Outside there are rooftop terraces, three pools, seven gardens, and a seven-acre park designed by landscape architect Boris Timchenko. Common areas are even connected via underground walkways, affording denizens temperature control during D.C’s less temperate months, as well as unparalleled levels of privacy.

With such luxurious offerings, it’s no wonder the place has long been a haven for Washington’s elite. Just a few of the politicos who have called Watergate home include Bob and Elizabeth Dole, Walter and Leonore Annenberg, Condoleezza Rice, and Karl Rove.

And it was there, on the sixth floor of the Watergate Office Building, that five burglars infamously broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the early morning hours of June 17th, 1972, setting off a string of events that wound up in the resignation of the 37th president of the United States – not to mention securing “gate” as a suffix to the name of all major scandals for years to come.

Watergate is hardly the only presidential scandal connected to the complex, though. Anna Chennault also lived there during the “Chennault Affair” (in which Nixon is said to have sabotaged peace talks between North and South Vietnam), as did Monica Lewinsky during her White House internship, which led to the impeachment of President Clinton.

Watergate’s movie history is, thankfully, much less salacious.

Watergate Office Building

The complex shows up several times as the home of Diana in “Wonder Woman 1984.”

In the movie, she is shown to live in the Watergate East building located at 2500 Virginia Ave. NW.

The complex is also the site of much hysteria during one of the film’s later scenes as Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) wreaks havoc on the world via his much-coveted Dreamstone.

The property also plays itself in the 1976 biographical drama about the Watergate scandal, “All the President’s Men.”

Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) stays at The Watergate Hotel and calls security to report seeing flashlights moving around in the office building across the way, thereby thrawrting the DNC burglary, in 1994’s “Forrest Gump.”

White House Chief of Staff Gloria Russell (Judy Davis) lives at the hotel in the 1997 drama “Absolute Power.”

And the offices of PointCorp are housed at Watergate in the 2009 thriller “State of Play.”

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Watergate East, where Diana lives in “Wonder Woman 1984,” is located at 2500 Virginia Ave. NW in Washington D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

For more Dirt on Watergate from “Wonder Woman 1984,” click over to the main page.