Some time late next spring, the Watergate section of Washington, D.C., a mile and a half north of the Lincoln Memorial, will begin life anew. On a ten-acre site along the Potomac, construction gangs will start throwing up a handsomely designed $65 million building complex that will include three high-rise apartment houses, 17 villas, a hotel, a shopping mall and an office building.
Since the new Watergate project will replace an abandoned gasworks, Washingtonians might have been expected to greet it with delight. Instead, a number of architects and critics are protesting vigorously...