Watergate complex

The Watergate complex is a group of six buildings in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. It includes a development of cooperative apartment residences, a hotel, and an office building. Its 10 acres (4.0 ha) area, which sits just north of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, is bounded on the north by Virginia Avenue, on the east by New Hampshire Avenue, on the south by F Street, and on the west by the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway which is along the Potomac River. Built between 1963 and 1971, the Watergate became one of the most desirable living spaces in Washington, D.C., popular with members of Congress and political appointees of the executive branch. The complex has been sold several times since the 1980s. During the 1990s, it was subdivided and its component buildings and parts of buildings were sold to various owners. In 1972, the office building was the location of the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of U.S. president Richard Nixon two years later. The name "Watergate" and the suffix "-gate" have become synonymous with and applied by journalists to controversial topics and scandals in the United States and elsewhere.