The Trump administration’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House has raised alarms among architecture and preservation groups, not just for the lack of public review, but the proposed 90,000 square foot ballroom that is proposed to replace it.
On Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation weighed in, calling on work to stop on the demolition, although there may not be much left of the East Wing, which has housed offices of the first lady and social secretary and is the entry point for most White House visitors and tourists.
“We acknowledge the utility of a larger meeting space at the White House, but we are deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself—it is 55,000 square feet—and may also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings,” Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust, wrote in a letter to the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service, and the Commission of Fine Arts.
Quillen wrote that the demolition should stop so that the ballroom could go through the “legally required public review process,” which includes the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, as well as to gather commit from the public.
“These processes provide a crucial opportunity for transparency and broad engagement—values that have guided preservation of the White House under every administration going back to the public competition in 1792 that produced the building’s original design,” she wrote. “Doing so will help ensure that the project both honors the exceptional historic significance of the White House and acknowledges the investment that the American people have in the preservation of this beloved place.”
When Trump unveiled plans for a ballroom last summer, he said it wouldn’t “interfere with the current building.” But the sheer size of the proposed ballroom, to be funded via private donations, made it clear that the East Wing would be altered. And on Monday, Trump revealed that an alteration would be made to the East Room, which is part of the main White House executive mansion, with a access point to a newly built corridor to the new ballroom.
The White House has pushed back on the criticism, sending out a press release on Tuesday that noted that there was a long legacy of presidential alterations, renovations and expansions of the White House complex. In 1948, when Harry Truman was president, the entire Executive Mansion was gutted down to its exterior walls, part of a renovation project amid fears that the structure was falling in on itself.
“In the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House — a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence,” the White House said.
But the images of the destruction of the East Wing have not only provided fodder for Trump’s detractors, who said it was a metaphor for what the president is doing with the federal government, but also has raised concerns on the right.
Byron York, chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, posted on X, “The president needs to tell the public now what he is doing with the East Wing of the White House. And then tell the public why he didn’t tell them before he started doing it.”
The ballroom will dwarf the Executive Mansion of the White House complex, which is only 55,000 square feet. Last summer, the American Institute of Architects issued a statement saying that the ballroom “must harmonize with the White House’s scale and architecture, ensuring the final design complements its historic character.”
Trump has long complained that the White House lacked a large event space. Most functions are held in the East Room, which can accommodate about 200 people. Larger state dinners often have been held under a tent on the South Lawn. The new ballroom, by contrast, may ultimately hold 900 people, the president has indicated.
When Barack Obama was president, Trump offered assistance in building a ballroom, but the administration did not follow up with him, David Axelrod, who was senior adviser to Obama, told PBS News.
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