White House renovations are afoot as demolition teams were seen on Oct. 20 tearing down the historic East Wing to make way for a 90,000 square foot ballroom.
The Trump administration announced the $300 million renovation plans at a press conference in July, noting that the East Wing would not be touched and the ballroom would be off of the East Wing. By October, however, the administration reversed their stance saying it was cheaper to remove entirely. Trump referred to the East Wing saying, “It was never thought of as being much.”
Traditionally, the protocol for any White House renovation would have gone through the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) that reviews federal construction projects in the Washington, D.C. region and the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) would evaluate the plans before construction could begin. This process has not been followed by the Trump administration.
“The implications are deep, and the East Wing stance is symbolic of sort of tearing down a structure without regard to the consequences, without really permission from the consent of the governed. It’s the people’s house, it’s not his,” said University history professor and lawyer Glenn Martin Miller. “I believe he’s broken the law at the municipal level. I believe he has broken protocol and law on the Landmarks Commission.”
Since the renovations of former Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, the East Wing historically has housed the offices of the First Lady of the United States and became one of the prime locations to welcome visitors and dignitaries.
“During World War II, the area that is now the East Wing… was first built by FDR and underground, he’s building a bomb shelter. That’s the thing under the surface that the people didn’t know at the time. 60 odd years later, when 9/11 happened, that same area is where they took Vice President Dick Cheney,” said University history professor Dr. Durahn Taylor. “You have to come to terms with what you know you can’t know. There’s stuff we can’t know right now. What’s underneath the surface is often more important than what’s on the surface.”
These are the biggest renovations to the White House since Truman ordered the interiors of the White house to be rebuilt. The White House Historical Association notes that the Truman Reconstruction lasted from 1948-1952. The Trump administration expects the privately funded renovations to be completed by the end of Trump’s second term in 2029.
Following the East Wing demolition news, an outcry erupted from critics from both historians and members of the public questioning why a living piece of American history had to be torn down to pave the way for the new ballroom.
“As a historian, I’m learning this. We have to learn to live with change. There are times I used to think I was more nostalgic when I was younger, and the older I get, the more I realize change is necessary, and you have to go ahead and make a change. It may be,” Taylor stated.
“The historical implications are sort of, some would say, a metaphor for the whole Trump administration. There is a complete disdain, if you will, for following the law. There is, either by ignorance or by design or both, a disdain for existing protocols, traditional protocols,” Miller said.
Questions continue to buzz about how big the ballroom will actually be, who are all the private donors funding the large-scale renovation, will the renovation be finished in the desired time-frame and most of all, what will possibly be built underneath the surface of the people’s state ballroom.
