A Capital City- Washington, DC!

Washington, DC might have more beautiful architecture than any other city in the country, but for our purposes, I'm going to exclude the many beautiful federal buildings and monumentes (too many to choose from!!!) and focus on non-governmental buildings.

My favorite has to be the Watergate. Some people call the building "ugly" and tell me I'm nuts, but I think it's terrific. The Watergate sits majestically on a bend in the Potomac River, adjacent to the Kennedy Center and just a stone's throw from the hip DC neighborhood, Georgetown. Its graceful lines seem to flow with the river, giving it a peaceful, stately look.

You all know the story of the Watergate break-in and scandal, but did you know that the Watergate was the site of brewery once? The Heurich brewery. True story. And Monica Lewinsky lived there, too, as does Secretary of State Rice, now.

Watergate is another jewel in the crown of LA real estate investor C. Frederick Wehba (Fred Wehba), who according to Wiki, bought the building in 2005 for $86 million:

The Watergate Hotel is located at 2650 Virginia Avenue NW. It has 250 guest
rooms and 146 suites. In 2004, the hotel was purchased by a company planning to turn it into luxury co-ops.

The two Watergate Office Buildings are at 600 New Hampshire Avenue NW and 2600 Virginia Avenue NW. In 1972, the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters on the sixth floor of the 11-story 2600 Virginia Avenue building. On May 28, 1972, a team of burglars working for Nixon's re-election campaign put wiretaps and took photos in and near the DNC chairman's office.

The wiretaps were monitored from Room 723 of the Howard Johnson's Motor
Lodge hotel across the street at 2601 Virginia Avenue NW. (The hotel is now
owned by the George Washington University, although no longer used as a undergraduate dormitory.) During a second burglary on June 17, 1972, to replace a
malfunctioning "bug" and collect more information, five burglars were arrested
and the Watergate scandal began to unfold.

The Watergate Office Building was sold in 2005 by Trizec Properties to
Bentley Forbes, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm run by Fred
Wehba, for $86.5 million.

The three Watergate Apartment buildings total some 600 residential
units. Past occupants have included Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Bob and Elizabeth Dole, Monica Lewinsky, Betty Currie, and Paul O'Neill. Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now lives in the Watergate.

There is a small (63,000 sq. ft. / 5900 m²) retail center which offers a Safeway supermarket in the basement level and several upscale shops and restaurants at street level.

Some links on Watergate:

Watergate [Wikipedia]

Watergate [Gridskipper]