Watergate

In the mid-20th century, Emeryville was a gritty industrial hub in the middle of a major economic crisis. Looking for reinvention, city leaders turned to the shallow bay waters known as the "Tidelands." In 1966 they made an ambitious gamble: moving earth into the bay to carve out an entirely new peninsula. From that land rose a new era for the city. When the Watergate complex opened its doors in 1972, it offered a buzzing, resort-style oasis, a sharp contrast to the town's smokestack past. The story took another turn in 1979, when the massive apartment community was converted into nearly 1,250 condominiums. That handed the waterfront over to a passionate new wave of homeowners, cementing Watergate not just as a housing development but as a living monument to a city that dared to build its future from the water up.