White House Getting a Trump-Style Upgrade With a $200 Million Ballroom Project

The largest renovation at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in decades will be funded, mostly, by private donations, including from the president.

Via the White House
The Trump administration has collected $200 million for a golden ballroom at the White House. Via the White House

The White House is about to get a Trump-style upgrade with the construction of a new ballroom on the grounds at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Officials announced on Thursday a $200 million construction project to create a new White House ballroom, a 90,000-square-foot facility that will accommodate nearly 700 people for events.

“President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail. The President and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future Administrations and generations of Americans to come,” the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, said in a statement.

The funding for the new project, which will begin in September, comes from donations made by the president himself and other unnamed donors, while the United States Secret Service will handle the needed security enhancements and modifications.

The ballroom will be mostly separated from the main building but maintain its theme and architectural heritage. The site chosen for the project is where the reconstructed East Wing currently sits. Added to the main building in 1902, the East Wing has been renovated multiple times over the past century, including the addition of a second story in 1942. 

Renderings of the planned ballroom show that it will keep in form with the White House’s Neo-Classical style. Mockups of the interior show the main room adorned in the president’s preferred precious metal – gold.

The White House has long been unable to host large functions without erecting a large tent 100 yards away from the main building. The new ballroom will also hold much more than the current 200-person capacity of the East Room.

Mr. Trump has long wanted to build a new ballroom at the White House.

“We are going to make and build a ballroom, which they’ve wanted for probably 100 years at the White House,” Mr. Trump said in May during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have three or four different concepts and we’re working with great architects.”

During his recent trip to Scotland, the president mentioned again that plans were in the works.

“You know, we just built this ballroom, and we’re building a great ballroom at the White House,” he said while sitting in a ballroom at his Turnberry golf course with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

“No president knew how to build a ballroom,” Mr. Trump boasted. 

“I could take this one, drop it right down there, and it would be beautiful.”


The New York Sun

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