{"id":423975,"date":"2026-01-23T00:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423975\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T00:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T00:52:12","slug":"trump-appointees-ask-about-white-house-ballrooms-design-and-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423975\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump appointees ask about White House ballroom’s design and scale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of Donald Trump\u2019s handpicked appointees who have a say<\/a> in his White House ballroom project asked questions Thursday about its \u201cimmense\u201d design and scale, even as they broadly endorsed the president\u2019s vision for a massive expansion<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Commission on Fine Arts discussion, which also included a brief review of mostly negative public comments on Trump\u2019s plans, revealed no immediate threat to Trump\u2019s overall idea, which historic preservationists are separately asking a federal court<\/a> to slow down. But it demonstrated the sensitivity and political controversy involved since the president approved the demolition of the East Wing after unveiling designs that would more than double the square footage of the White House as it was before. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an important thing to the president. It\u2019s an important thing to the nation,\u201d said the new Fine Arts chairman, Rodney Mims Cook Jr.<\/a>, in the panel\u2019s first public hearing on Trump\u2019s proposal. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have the United States of America entertaining people in tents,\u201d Cook said, noting that administrations long before Trump complained about having to host State Dinners and major events in temporary structures. The question, the chairman added, is \u201cif we can do this in a way that this building remains\u201d true to its fundamental character and still \u201ctake care of what the president wants us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

3D scale models requested by Fine Arts commissioners<\/p>\n

After lead architect Shalom Baranes presented renderings during Thursday\u2019s online meeting, commissioners asked him to return to a future, in-person session with 3D scale models of the White House complex with the proposed addition. Baranes said an in-person presentation, per the commissioners\u2019 request, also would include scale models of the U.S. Treasury Department building to the east of the presidential mansion and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to the west. <\/p>\n

Baranes and commissioners alike came into the meeting aware of concerns about the project\u2019s scale and whether it can be incorporated well enough into the White House, even as Trump remains undeterred. <\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is working 24\/7 to Make America Great Again, including his historic beautification of the White House,\u201d said West Wing spokesman Davis Ingle. <\/p>\n

The total addition would be almost 90,000 square feet, Baranes confirmed, with 22,000 of that the ballroom itself. The White House was about 55,000 square feet before the East Wing, first built in 1902 and expanded in the 1940s, was demolished.<\/p>\n

Thomas Luebke, the commission\u2019s executive director, told the group that public comments received online ahead of the meeting were \u201calmost all\u201d negative \u201cin some way,\u201d criticizing the process, the design or both. <\/p>\n

Luebke read one comment that he described as \u201cmore positive\u201d because it complimented the design and style shown in renderings. Yet even that commenter, Luebke said, wrote that \u201cthe scale appears oversized, making the main structure dominated.\u201d Nodding to the criticism, Baranes emphasized that current plans call for the addition\u2019s north boundary to be set back from the existing North Portico \u2014 essentially the front porch \u2014 and for the top of the new structure to be even with the primary facade of the White House and its residence.<\/p>\n

The view of the White House<\/p>\n

Baranes, whose firm has worked on other federal buildings, said this is to ensure the view of the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue would not change fundamentally. A new east side colonnade connecting the main structure to the ballroom addition also would be two stories, rather than the single story that was demolished. This would add to the continuity of the new design, Baranes said. <\/p>\n

He added that architects have contemplated a similar second story atop the West Wing to address concerns about symmetry. But he said during questioning that it is merely a concept. There has been no structural analysis of the existing West Wing, he said, to determine if it could support another level. <\/p>\n

Some commissioners said they appreciated Baranes\u2019 effort to address scale and symmetry on the north side of the White House, which fronts Pennsylvania Avenue. But they noted that still doesn\u2019t address how much the design might change the view from the South Lawn. Renderings show a 10-column, multistory porch on the south side of the addition that looks more like the Treasury Department edifice than any part of the White House. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s immense,\u201d Cook said to Baranes. \u201cIf the president just wants cover, do you think you might be able to tone down that element?\u201d <\/p>\n

The architect answered: \u201cWe looked at ways of covering it at different scales with different numbers of columns, and there\u2019s a president\u2019s desire to proceed with this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting Thursday was part of a series of meetings and public hearings with the Fine Arts panel and the National Capital Planning Commission, both of which have roles in assessing and approving federal construction projects in Washington. <\/p>\n

A judge could suspend the project<\/p>\n

Historic preservationists are seeking a court order for the Trump administration to suspend construction of its $400 million ballroom project. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon didn\u2019t rule from the bench on Thursday after hearing arguments from attorneys for the government and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.<\/p>\n

Leon, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, said he hopes to issue a decision sometime next month on the group\u2019s request for a preliminary injunction. But he acknowledged that his decision likely will be appealed no matter how he rules.<\/p>\n

Plaintiff\u2019s attorney Thad Heuer said the president \u2014 a temporary occupant of the White House \u2014 needed and didn\u2019t have congressional approval before embarking on a project of this magnitude and cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe isn\u2019t the landlord,\u201d Heuer said. \u201cHe is a steward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government lawyer Jacob Roth argued that the president has the statutory authority and broad discretion to modify the White House. Stopping in the middle of the project would create problems, including security concerns for the president, Roth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any question that this modernization is in the public\u2019s interest,\u201d he told the judge.<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of Donald Trump\u2019s handpicked appointees who have a say in his White House ballroom project asked questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,2302,3506,17809,3505,12,29560,793,12805,201967,3,111,201965,201968,200479,201969,201966,21,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-423975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-courts","tag-dc-wire","tag-decor","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-dwight-d-eisenhower","tag-general-news","tag-george-w-bush","tag-jacob-roth","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-richard-j-leon","tag-rodney-mims-cook-jr","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-thad-heuer","tag-thomas-luebke","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}