One of the nation’s premier historic preservation teams on Tuesday urged the Trump administration to pause demolition of the White House East Wing, which excavators started tearing into this week to make manner for President Donald Trump’s deliberate ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Congressionally chartered non-profit tasked with preserving historic buildings, wrote in a letter to the National Park Service and two administration commissions that Trump’s proposed 90,000-square-foot addition would “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.”
The alarm amongst preservationists on the demolition now underway mirrored the shock many felt this week as photographs emerged of the East Wing facade being crushed right into a pile of rubble.
The work continued Tuesday as the excavators tore additional into the constructing, the sounds of rhythmic pounding and occasional crashing drifting throughout the 18-acre White House campus.
“You hear that sound? That’s music to my ears; I love that sound,” Trump informed a group of Republican senators having lunch within the Rose Garden. Trump has stated the $200 million venture can be funded by way of non-public donations.
The construction being demolished consists of the suite of workplaces historically utilized by the primary girl, as properly as area for White House calligraphers, sure navy aides, and the social secretary. Staffers in these departments have been relocated to different areas on the advanced.
The East Wing’s wood-paneled lobby has lengthy been the primary level of entry for guests attending social occasions on the White House, as properly as these going on excursions of the constructing. The part emerged in its present kind in 1942.
While Trump introduced months in the past his plans to exchange the East Wing with the brand new ballroom — a vital addition, he says, to accommodate massive occasions — the demolition seems to have proceeded with out an intensive public evaluate course of.
In Tuesday’s letter, the National Trust for Historic Preservation “respectfully” urged the administration to “pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes, including consultation and review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, and to invite comment from the public.”
“These processes provide a crucial opportunity for transparency and broad engagement—values that have guided preservation of the White House under every administration going back to the public competition in 1792 that produced the building’s original design,” the letter learn.
The two commissions the letter was addressed to — the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts — have up to now reviewed proposed additions to the White House. That consists of adjustments to the perimeter fence and the development of a brand new tennis pavilion throughout the previous decade.
The present chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, Will Scharf, who serves as Trump’s employees secretary, stated throughout a gathering of the fee final month that its jurisdiction covers development, however not demolition — suggesting the physique would ultimately be concerned within the venture, however not till after the East Wing was demolished.
“I know the president thinks very highly of this commission, and I’m excited for us to play a role in the ballroom project when the time is appropriate for us to do so,” Scharf stated.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation shouldn’t be the one group to name for a extra rigorous evaluate of the ballroom venture. Last week, earlier than demolition started, the Society of Architectural Historians wrote in a statement, “Such a significant change to a historic building of this import should follow a rigorous and deliberate design and review process.”
The White House didn’t reply to a request for remark on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s letter. But earlier Tuesday, officers distributed a prolonged checklist of previous development tasks on the govt mansion, suggesting the ballroom fell right into a sample of enhancements to the constructing.
“In the latest instance of manufactured outrage, unhinged leftists and their Fake News allies are clutching their pearls over President Donald J. Trump’s visionary addition of a grand, privately funded ballroom to the White House — a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and renovations from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence,” the assertion learn.
The photographs included development of the West and East Wings, a multiyear intestine renovation undertaken throughout Harry Truman’s administration, and the set up of a swimming pool overseen by Gerald Ford.