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 Watergate West is a master work of prominent European Modernist Luigi Moretti, one of the most important twentieth-century Italian architects. The Watergate complex represents the only example of his work in the United States The Watergate, so unusual and unfamiliar in its Washington, DC-setting, represents his design aesthetic developed through thirty years of practice. The sharp, angular Watergate West fully realizes Moretti's love of geometric contrast. The alternating bands of windows and balconies represent Moretti's fascination with the relationship between solids and voids in architecture. A less common feature is the decidedly nautical feel to the buildings. The various stories suggest the decks of a great ocean liner, capped by the cylindrical mechanical penthouses much like smoke stacks, and the sharp, forceful corner of Watergate West looks very much like a prow. Such nautical references may have been intended to reference the adjacent Potomac River. |
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