Few addresses in America carry the burden of historical past fairly like Washington, D.C.’s Watergate Sophisticated. Identified worldwide as the positioning of the scandal that toppled President Richard Nixon, the identify “Watergate” has turn out to be shorthand for political curiosity. But beneath the headlines and historic baggage lies a vastly underappreciated piece of American structure – a sweeping modernist gem designed within the Sixties by Italian architect Luigi Moretti. With its signature curves, extensive terraces, and daring design language, the Watergate stands aside as one of many few actually avant-garde residential buildings within the nation’s capital. And now, the newly unveiled Watergate Pied-à-Terre undertaking by Nicholas Potts Studio shines a up to date highlight on the architectural significance of this icon.
Positioned excessive atop one of many Watergate’s crescent towers, this 3,000-square-foot house is the results of a combining two previously separate models. Architect Nicholas Potts, identified for his delicate but daring method to interiors, collaborated with stylist Tessa Watson and builder BOWA to reimagine the area as a refined pied-à-terre – an expensive house that pays homage to the constructing’s modernist legacy whereas infusing it with a recent spirit.
For Potts, the undertaking was a possibility to peel again years of unsympathetic renovations that had dulled the constructing’s unique aesthetic. Over the many years, many Watergate models had succumbed to ill-fitting design tendencies: faux-colonial trim, builder-grade finishes, and awkward spatial planning. Potts and his crew approached the design by stripping away something that contradicted the constructing’s DNA and as a substitute embracing the Watergate’s sinuous geometry, ample volumes, and period-informed palette.
The design crew created the house’s structure round axial sightlines and beneficiant proportions, remodeling once-cramped rooms into open areas. The plan favors entertaining and motion, with a move that feels each grand and comfy. The impact is one among restoration – not solely of partitions and finishes, however of the Watergate’s unique architectural imaginative and prescient.
Each inch of the newly unified residence displays a dedication to each precision and glamour. The partitions are clad in crotch-cut Okoume wooden paneling, a scarce and richly figured veneer that envelops the area in heat. Flooring of basketweave travertine lend a grounded rhythm underfoot, whereas moments of excessive drama – comparable to a translucent onyx wall glowing softly with built-in lighting – present punctuation all through the house.
Customized particulars, like doorways and {hardware} that had been designed particularly for the area by legendary maker P.E. Guerin, guaranteeing that even the smallest touchpoints resonate with care and craftsmanship. Accents of Verde Antigua marble, hand-patinated metals, and gold leaf converse to a late-modern aesthetic that leans lush, not minimal.
To furnish the house, Potts and Watson turned to a world choice of design galleries, curating a set that feels each timeless and unmistakably of-the-moment. Items from The Future Good, Gallery Morentz, and Studio TwentySeven are artfully positioned alongside classic furnishings, together with Nineteen Seventies Leola ceiling fixtures by Sciolari, creating an inside narrative that bridges many years.
All through the house, references embrace every little thing from Mies van der Rohe to the Viennese Secession – by means of structural strains, materials selections, and a disciplined sense of symmetry. But the house feels real, a assured synthesis of eras, anchored within the current.
For extra data, go to nicholasgpotts.com.
