The federal Commission of Fine Arts has taken issue with plans for a new 33,000-square-foot security screening center for White House visitors, saying the proposed facility is too big and not beautiful enough.
Members of the Commission of Fine Arts — which President Trump has packed with allies and supporters — had been scheduled to give preliminary approval to the project on Thursday. Instead, they delayed the vote and asked for substantial changes that would emulate the grandeur of ancient Greek and Roman structures.
“Can this building please be made shorter in length and shorter in height?” asked James C. McCrery II, the vice chairman of the panel who was the first architect on Mr. Trump’s coveted ballroom project.
He added: “It’s such a prominent thing, and its prominence then obligates it to be beautiful.”
The panel made no such objections last month when it approved Mr. Trump’s 90,000-square foot, $400 million ballroom, bypassing the normal review process and fast-tracking the vote on a project that would transform the profile of the White House. (Mr. McCrery, who disagreed with Mr. Trump over the size of the ballroom, recused himself from that vote.)
Mr. Trump does not seem to have the same personal affinity for the visitor center as he does for the ballroom, which he considers to be a legacy project.
Still, his administration is working with the Secret Service on the new visitors facility, saying it is a needed upgrade to the temporary trailers and tents now used to screen visitors for large events. Current plans call for the facility to be partially underground. Its entrance would be located at Sherman Park, adjacent to the White House.
The facility would be the latest modification Mr. Trump has proposed for the White House campus, which he is rapidly remaking. The most drastic change was the sudden demolition of the East Wing, the historic home of the offices of the first lady, to make way for the ballroom.
Andy Stohs, a senior adviser for technical operations with the Secret Service, described the problems with screening visitors at temporary trailers and said the facilities have not been ideal for decades.
“This has not been the best situation for those visitors coming to visit the White House,” he said. “They’re outside. We cannot employ all the technology we’d like to at all at different times, and it’s very limiting as one security streamline.”
The panel told the Secret Service to report back with changes to the design.
“We need you to come back and pay attention to what we said,” said the panel’s chairman, Rodney Mims Cook Jr. “Thank you so much for coming, and we definitely need this. You’re well underway.”
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
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