President Trump on Tuesday released a new rendering of his plans for a large new ballroom on White House grounds and said it was stylistically similar to the historic design of the existing buildings nearby.
Mr. Trump, who has faced criticism about the size of his White House renovation project, including his surprise demolition of the East Wing, wrote on social media that the ballroom would be “The Greatest of its kind ever built!!”
It “replaces the very small, dilapidated, and rebuilt many times, East Wing, with a magnificent New East Wing,” he said, adding that the ballroom would not be taller than the Executive Mansion of the White House.
“If you notice, the North Wall is a replica of the North Facade of the White House,” he said.
The East Portico in the image also replicated that of the nearby Treasury building.
The details in the rendering largely mirrored the drawings displayed at recent public meetings by the architect on the project, Shalom Baranes. But the image was also the latest indication that Mr. Trump was personally involved in the project.
“Being an identical height and scale, it is totally in keeping with our historic White House,” the president wrote.
The Trump administration has presented preliminary plans for the ballroom to two review panels, the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts. Some members of those panels have expressed concern about the size of the nearly 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which critics have said could dwarf the existing White House.
The administration has been under legal pressure from historical preservationists to submit the new ballroom project to a formal review process. So far, the initial construction on the project has been allowed to proceed, though a judge recently expressed deep skepticism about the government’s case.
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
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