Published: Architectural Digest, Vogue Living, Design Milk

A famous address—Washington DC’s Watergate Complex—is known more for political intrigues of the past than for its architecture. Yet the complex remains, to this day, a prime residence for notable Washingtonians and one of the few notable modern architectural landmarks in the District, albeit one whose physical reality has been marred by unsympathetically out-of-character modifications and an identity confused by Washington DC’s uneasy relationship with modernist design.

This combined apartment, occupying a prime perch on one of the Watergate’s top floors, rewrites the recent design history of the complex. Stripping away both an awkward layout of tiny rooms as well as the faux-colonial moldings and builder-grade finishes accreted in the intervening years, we reimagined this apartment from top to bottom, rationalizing the plan around axially-arranged spaces sized for entertaining, and stylistically embracing the over-the-top glamour of late twentieth century design in lushly layered, atmospheric tones and patterns.

A collaboration with world-class craftspeople and ateliers—gilders, metalworkers, stonefitters, cabinetmakers—this apartment is a showcase of bespoke design and intentionally sourced, heirloom-quality materials befitting its famous address, complemented by new and vintage 1960s-70s furnishings that straddle the line between the ‘monumental modernism’ era of the late twentieth century and contemporary comfort.

• Location: Washington, DC,

• Type: Complete Apartment Renovation

• Services: Architecture, Interior Design

• Contractor: BOWA

• Sources: ABC Worldwide Stone, AK Metals, Ferris Custom Cabinetry, Lenore Winters Studio, Nakashima Woodworkers, Nanz, Nicholas Hall Art, PE Guerin, Studio TwentySeven, The Future Perfect

• Photographer: Chris Mottalini

• Stylist: Tessa Watson