A leading historic preservation group has called on the Trump administration to halt the bulldozers tearing down the White House’s East Wing to make way for a massive ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit created by Congress to help preserve historic buildings, said Tuesday that the 90,000-square-foot, $250 million event space would “overwhelm the White House itself,” which is about 55,000 square feet.
The intervention follows the furor sparked by images of a demolition crew tearing through the East Wing’s facade on Monday.
“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough said Trump had taken a “wrecking ball” to the historic building and called the spectacle “just grotesque.”
But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back at the “fake outrage,” as officials argued the East Wing, which was added in 1902, has been altered many times before.
Trump, who has said he is paying for the overhaul with funding also coming from private donors, appeared thrilled with the work so far when he addressed Senate Republicans on Tuesday from the White House Rose Garden (which he recently paved over).
“You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back,” the president said. “You hear that sound? Oh, that’s music to my ears.”
In a letter to the National Park Service and two administration commissions, Carol Quillen, president and CEO of the National Trust, writes:
While the National Trust acknowledges the utility of a larger meeting space at the White House, we are deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself — it is 55,000 square feet — and may also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings.
Citing the need for transparency and public engagement, the National Trust urged the administration and the National Park Service to “pause” demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through a full public review.
The White House has attempted to downplay the scale of the makeover, arguing that the alterations will be limited to the building’s eastern entrance.
But The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the demolition work had “advanced Tuesday with the destruction of much of the East Wing.”
The newspaper said “a large part of the structure remained,” but it appeared that “what remained was also headed for demolition” as there was no evidence that the exposed parts of the building were being protected.
The Post also cited an unnamed White House official who did not say whether any of the East Wing would be saved.
Since his return to the White House, Trump has also gilded the Oval Office and added two massive flagpoles as he looks to remake the “the People’s House” in his own image.
