An Italian Estate in the US: The case of Watergate in Washington

Founded in 1862 and active until 1988, Società Generale Immobiliare has been one of the key actors of Italian post-war real estate development. Between 1945 and 1975, the company reached the peak of its activity and was managing independently the complete real estate process from the acquisition of the construction area to the sale of the apartments.
To manage the whole construction process, SGI was employing a large number of professionals with different specializations, and it had an extensive network of regional offices that were involved in the actual realization of the buildings. Thanks to the possibility of controlling the whole production process, SGI could experiment with innovative solutions for construction systems, apartment layouts, and interaction with clients.
At the same time, SGI collaborated also with leading architects in the realization of its most representative designs and created a privileged channel of knowledge transfer between highly skilled professionals and the mass production of housing.
When in the 1960s’ the company reached a significant volume of affairs, it started to develop several buildings abroad, as in the case of Victoria Tower in Montreal, of the Las Palmas residential neighborhoods built in Mexico City, and of the office building in Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
SGI was involved in the production of several projects also in the US, and this essay investigates in particular the Watergate estate in Washington D.C., a residential complex that was realized between 1962 and 1971 with the project of Luigi Moretti.
Watergate has had an outstanding mediatic resonance, as it gave the name to the scandal that led the American president Richard Nixon to resign.
At the same time, it represents one of the most important realizations of SGI, and it is proudly advertised through the publications of the company.
In Watergate Moretti’s architectural investigation and SGI housing research converges in unprecedented buildings with curved volumes with a broad typological variety, and entrances articulated in several stories. Moreover, Watergate is also an example of collaboration between the Italian real estate developer and several American professionals, including the architect Milton Fischer, the engineers Heinman & Clifton, T.Y. Lin & Associates, and the landscape designer Boris Timchenko.
Following an introduction on the organization of SGI abroad, this essay investigates how the design and construction of Watergate happened between Italy and the US, and it reflects on the influence that it had on the housing of both countries.