What does Watergate Tower do?

The most famous places in the United States and Beijing include the White House and the Space Museum. The Pentagon is the largest office in the world and can accommodate more than 50,000 staff, but it is not open to tourists. The next more modern buildings are the Kennedy Cultural Center and the Watergate Building adjacent to Kennedy.

The Watergate Building consists of six buildings. Among them, the residential area *** has three units: the east building, the west building, and the south building. They can only be used as residences, not offices or businesses, and they cannot be rented out. More than 1 year, the restrictions are very strict. Outside the residential area there is a Watergate Hotel and two office buildings.

There is a swimming pool, a food pharmacy, a beauty salon, a gym, a snack shop, and a flower shop on the ground floor of the Watergate Building residential area. No matter it rains, snows, or winds, you don’t have to drive to other places to shop. Just go downstairs. You can buy all daily necessities, very convenient. This method later became the blueprint for many builders, such as the new buildings in Taipei today.

Most of the luxurious residences in Washington are in the George Town Area, which is the University District of Georgia City. 100 years ago, this was a gathering place for black slaves. Later, they drove the black people out. Luxurious residences are built there. The Watergate Building is located between the State Department and Georgia City, only a stone's throw away from the two places. Many officials and influential dignitaries live in these two areas.

When I travel abroad, foreign friends often ask me about Watergate: What kind of building is this? Who lives inside? From 1974 to 1975, some Pratunam shops were crowded with tourists). Busloads of tourists came to our building to take a few photos and buy a few bottles of wine to take home to show off to relatives and friends, showing that they had arrived at the famous Minato.

Some of my friends even asked me for empty wine bottles with Watergate labels to keep as souvenirs.

During the filming of "The Great Conspiracy", many actors and actresses temporarily stayed at the Watergate Hotel, and there were camera crews and movie stars everywhere. These tourists threw cold drink bottles, wrappers, and cigarette butts everywhere. The poor residents of Watergate had no choice but to pay the cleaning fee. No one could do anything about this infringement of privacy.

Let’s talk about the origin and construction of the Watergate Building:

In 1966, an Italian company purchased a piece of land at the corner of Stony Brook Park and Virginia Avenue, facing the Potomac River. , part of which was purchased from the Watergate Restaurant, and it is planned to build a complex of buildings here, including residential and office buildings, as well as a hotel. They first actively launched a campaign to promote the sale of houses and publicized it extensively.

The architect Moretti is from Rome, Italy, and another Milanese, Italy, and Sage is the development manager. Both were extremely shrewd.

The Foggy Bottom Project Corporation took over the site of the old Washington Gas and Electric Company and built the Watergate Building. Over the years the building became part of American political history, and for a while was featured daily on television and in newspapers.

Diversified building construction was still a fairly new concept in Washington at that time, and it attracted quite a lot of attention. However, after the house was completed, there were many imperfections, such as leaking roofs, clogged water pipes, incorrect air conditioning system design, etc.

Residents have filed lawsuits against housing development companies. Many of them settled in court after spending large sums of legal fees. Residents are concerned about the future resale value of their houses, while development companies are worried that the lawsuit will drag on. , will inevitably affect the sales of other houses and new buildings in Watergate.

In 1967, I moved into the Watergate Building on Virginia Avenue in Northwest Washington. I originally hoped to find a little peace in the new environment amidst the city's troubles, but the result was the opposite. Watergate became world-famous for its political disaster.

Before moving to Watergate, I lived at 4201 Big Classroom Street. This is a high-rise apartment building called "Tower". Although I am very satisfied with the management there, the neighbors on the left and right are noisy and I am caught in the middle. It feels really uncomfortable. The air-conditioning engine is installed on the roof of my house. And it's right above my bedroom. Every night I listened to the rumble of the machine and couldn't fall asleep. When the sound stopped, the phone next door rang again in the middle of the night. It kept ringing and no one answered. The owner of the house was either too lazy to answer or was never at home. I made up my mind that if I live in an apartment next time, I will definitely choose the top floor, and this one will be able to avoid the interference of neighbors.

When I saw the floor plan of the Watergate building, I thought that now I could get what I wanted. The side rooms and the top floor would save me from being harassed by my neighbors. The construction hadn't started yet and I paid the deposit. Design your own one-story house to be quiet in the bustle, with a white garden on the roof. In the next few years, Minato became famous, which I didn't expect at first.

Sage is a very good Italian. I remember that he installed three small fireplaces in my 40-foot-long living room. I asked to replace them, but he refused to agree and repeated the request many times. , of no use at all. Finally, I asked him and his assistant to negotiate with my attorney, Tom Gecklen, on the job site. Ge Kelun told Sage that if they didn't replace the fireplace with a bigger one, they would sue him, and Sage finally bowed his head and admitted that they had made a mistake. As I walked out of the unfinished apartment, I overheard Sage's assistant saying to him: "Why are you giving in to them? Maybe her lawyer is just bluffing and won't really sue us." Sage replied: "You're wrong. Why are you doing a small job here today, while Ge Kelun can have his high achievements? This is the difference. If you are not sure, you can't scare people casually." Sage has his after all. He will never fight a battle that he is not sure of.

The East Watergate was first completed in 1967, and Transport Minister Volp was my next-door neighbor. Volp was the governor of Massachusetts before he entered the cabinet. He did not get along well with White House assistants Erickman and Hardman. Everyone called the two "palace guards." In 1972, when Nixon was re-elected, Volp was sent to Italy as ambassador and left the United States.

In 1971, Volp and I launched the 1972 Transportation Exhibition in Washington, which was very successful. I also got to know Volp's assistant, Barry Locke, who was very capable of doing things.

Assistant Secretary of State Erwin II, who later was appointed U.S. Ambassador to France, also lived on the same floor. We all went to work during the day. His Korean maid and my servant also got together to chat. I think they knew better than the owner about what happened on the top floor. Fran and his wife were another couple living on the top floor. Fran later went on a mission to Iran and Turkey, as well as Dr. Wood and his wife. Wood was the vice president of Strange Company. The top floor is very big and only five of us live there.

John Mitchell and his wife Martha lived on the seventh floor. Their neighbors on the same floor included Federal Reserve Director Burns, Louisiana Senator Long and his wife, Missouri Senator Shi The Mytons. In addition, Senators Brooke, Claxton, Doerr, Hansen, Javits, Rybikov and other members of Congress and government officials also live in the same building.

Mitchell and Burns are pipe smokers. Sometimes when you walk into the elevator and the smell of smoke hits your nostrils, it must be one of them who has used the elevator.

From early 1969 to early 1973, Watergate was a symbol of power, and people even jokingly called East Watergate the "West White House." Early in the morning, a shiny black car was waiting outside to take the man to work and the mistress to meetings and social activities. The other residents watched them leave with envy. There were actually more Democrats in Watergate than Republicans, but at that time, the Republicans were much more prosperous.

Mitchell was attorney general at the time (and considered the closest Nixon confidant at the time). Naturally, he attracted considerable attention. Wherever his wife Martha went, journalists followed her, creating a lot of news. Daughter Mattie has also become the subject of interviews with reporters. News about the Mitchell family appears on TV, newspapers and magazines almost every day.

Many government dignitaries live in the same building, and security personnel are seen coming in and out all day long. Mitchell and Martha have their own security personnel to protect them at all times, and their phone numbers change every few weeks, so frequently that sometimes even Martha herself can't remember her home phone number.