The White House ballroom design just cleared a significant hurdle
At a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission, officials voted to approve the design of the 90,000 sq ft addition
President Donald Trump’s plan to tack a 90,000 sq ft Neoclassical-style ballroom onto the White House is one step closer to becoming a reality.
With a vote Thursday, members of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) – the organisation tasked with planning oversight for federal buildings in the Washington, DC region – approved the design of the extension, which was designed to accommodate 1,000 guests for state functions and also contain administrative spaces.
Critics of the design, by local firm Shalom Baranes Associates, have called into question the ballroom’s scale, its $400 million price tag and the speed at which the project has evolved; on Tuesday, a federal court even granted a preliminary injunction banning further construction on the project.
Architect Shalom Baranes presenting his firm's plan for the White House ballroom in January.
Even so, the project appears to be moving ahead. At the hearing, committee chairman William Scharf, who was appointed by President Trump to lead NCPC last July, noted that the ‘order really does not impact our action here today.’
‘The White House is ever-changing, ever-evolving to meet the programmatic needs of an ever changing and evolving United States presidency,’ Scharf continued, citing past alterations to the building. ‘And any argument that relies on the idea that the White House is unchangeable or should be unchangeable, flies in the face of the very history of the structure such critics claim they are trying to protect.’
A guest looks over the proposed design at Thursday's NCPC meeting.
NCPC consists of one dozen commissioners, three of which are appointed directly by the president. Commissioner Michael Blair, who serves as the White House deputy chief of staff, praised the design because ‘it blends great architecture with great hospitality.’ GSA administrator Edward Forst, who has an ex officio role on the committee added, ‘We’re going to wonder why we didn’t do it earlier.’
Just one commissioner, Phil Mendelson, questioned the scheme, particularly its swift design development. ‘What, we've had this for maybe three months?’ he said, pointing to an initial design presentation in January, not to mention changes that President Trump revealed to reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday night.
‘I think there's a lot of value to the iterative process, and we've not had that,’ Mendelson continued. ‘We don't have to choose between respecting our history for the American people and accommodating modern government's needs.’
When it was time to vote, though, Mendelson was the sole dissenting voice.
President Trump presents a revised design of the White House ballroom aboard Air Force One on Sunday night.
The approval marks a critical step forward in the ballroom project. But it remains to be seen how the ongoing federal court case, filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in December, will impact construction. (The National Trust declined to comment on the NCPC decision).
Still, President Trump interpreted the vote as a decisive victory. Writing on Truth Social, he said, ‘I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project, which is on time and under budget, underway. When completed, it will be the Greatest and Most Beautiful Ballroom of its kind anywhere in the World, and a fabulous complement to our Beautiful and Storied White House!’
