President Donald Trump has put forward plans for an expansive new White House ballroom, and recent images from the architectural firm Shalom Baranes Associates reveal its impressive scale.
The firm submitted a comprehensive 28-page proposal to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), which is among the regulatory bodies responsible for approving the project. This submission is set to be discussed at the commission’s meeting on March 5.
In a prior NCPC meeting held in January, which marked the first formal discussion on the ballroom initiative, Phil Mendelson, an NCPC member and chairman of the D.C. City Council, expressed concerns over the project’s size.
“I’m concerned about the significant overwhelming of the original historic building,” Mendelson remarked during the meeting.
Despite this feedback, the proposed project has not been scaled down.
The latest design plans depict a grand ballroom addition that extends across both the South and North Lawns. This includes a two-story structure that will replace the East Colonnade, aligning in height with the main White House residence.
The vantage points from the South Lawn show it going back at least three times as far as the West Wing.
The south side of the project has a grand porch with 16 pillars and a dramatic staircase.
Newly released White House ballroom renderings show the enormous ballroom structure jutting far back into the South Lawn (right), with a southern entryway with large pillars and steps
A view from the White House’s North Lawn shows the new two-story structure that will take place of the demolished East Colonnade and the ballroom (left), which is nearly as tall as the White House residence (right)
A southern view of the White House ballroom project, which shows the Treasury Department building to the far right, shows that the southern entrance will feature 16 pillars and an ornate set of steps
Schematics shared with the NCPC show in greater detail the office space that will be part of the addition, to replace the East Wing offices of First Lady Melania Trump and other White House aides that were reduced to rubble in October.
The White House theater, which was torn down when East Colonnade was wiped away, will be rebuilt as part of the two-story structure.
The second level of the rebuilt East Colonnade will be a grand hallway to the ballroom.
The president has said he wishes to use the White House’s historic East Room for a cocktail lounge ahead of large-scale dinners in the White House ballroom.
In November, Trump referred to the doorway in the current East Room as a ‘knock-out panel’ that would eventually lead to the ballroom.
The Daily Mail captured the uniquely shaped trees from the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden departing the White House complex on a truck bed, the day demolition started on the East Wing.
The new plans show that those trees will be replanted in a similar location.
Despite Mendelson’s tepid objection, the ballroom project isn’t expected to receive any real resistance from the NCPC, which Trump loaded with his allies.
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A view from Pennsylvania Avenue, showing the White House North Lawn, shows the size of the ballroom project (left), which is nearly tall as the existing White House residence
Schematics of the ballroom addition show office space that will replace First Lady Melania Trump’s bulldozed East Wing offices. The White House movie theater, which was also demolished, will be rebuilt in a new two-story East Colonnade
The uniquely shaped trees that had been a fixture of the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden will be returned to a similar location after the ballroom complex project is complete, the new documents showed
The chairman, Will Scharf, also serves as White House staff secretary.
The Commission of Fine Arts, another governmental body that will oversee the project, consists of all Trump appointees, including the ballroom’s original architect, James McCrery.
Still, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued over the project, pushing to have it stalled for historical review processes to properly move forward.
On Monday, the Washington Post reported that the federal judge handling the lawsuit has keyed in on private donations being used to fund the estimated $400 million project, as a way to bypass Congressional authorization.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon is expected to rule soon on whether the project can continue to go forward.
