Kennedy Center, White House Ballroom Plans Reveal Italy-Carved Columns and Plaza Named for Trump

Washington — As President Trump continues to defend in court his sweeping changes at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts and his plans for a new White House ballroom, both high-profile Washington projects are still moving forward.

New court filings tied to the legal battles are now offering a closer look at what is unfolding behind the scenes — from work underway at the White House on the site of the demolished East Room to Mr. Trump’s broader vision for reshaping the Kennedy Center.

At the White House, the ballroom construction effort is described as massive in scale, involving millions of pounds of steel and rebar, miles of conduit and more than 200 workers operating on a near round-the-clock schedule. Across town at the Kennedy Center, the board of trustees has moved ahead with a plan to restore Mr. Trump’s name to the building after a court ordered it removed, while also preparing another tribute to the president.

The Kennedy Center

A status report filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington sheds new light on the changes the Kennedy Center’s board approved last week for the landmark performing arts venue.

The board, led by Mr. Trump and filled with his allies and administration officials, voted to place the president’s name on the Kennedy Center facade. The decision comes two months after U.S. District Judge Chris Cooper found that the board had acted unlawfully when it previously added Mr. Trump’s name to the building last year.

After that ruling, construction crews removed the president’s name from the facade during an overnight operation on June 13. Since then, a tarp has covered that section of the center’s front portico, obscuring much of the building’s name from public view.

Now, however, the board has taken fresh action to return Mr. Trump’s name to the front of the Kennedy Center. Under a resolution approved last week, the new inscription would read: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.”

The resolution also calls for the center to recognize the “president’s contribution” once the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reaches $100 million. At that point, the inscription would be expanded to read: “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”

The board-approved measure also requires the “physical site and grounds” of the Kennedy Center to be named “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

The board has said it will not implement these changes until Sept. 8 at the earliest.

In the filing, submitted jointly by the Trump administration and lawyers for Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who sued last year over the Kennedy Center overhaul, both sides also addressed the tarp in the front of the building.

The Justice Department said the “protective covering” and scaffolding were erected because of water testing and structural repairs to a roof overhang. One portion of that scaffolding was used to remove Mr. Trump’s name from the building, government lawyers said.

But they declined to say how long the tarp and scaffolding will remain in place, writing instead that its removal “is contingent upon the scope of any repairs required at present to the marble facade, as well as any other necessary repairs.”

They also indicated that the marble may have been damaged.

During removal of Mr. Trump’s name, the tarp “served as a safety barrier for ongoing construction activities and helped safeguard the marble facade of the building in light of reported panel damage,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Beatty’s legal team said in the filing that the congresswoman is concerned that the Trump administration may have damaged the marble that lines the center’s facade when it affixed Mr. Trump’s name to it.

White House ballroom

The White House ballroom has been a fixation of Mr. Trump’s for months. But a federal judge considering a legal challenge to the project, brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, issued a preliminary injunction in March that would halt construction of the ballroom. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has allowed below-ground work on national-security facilities to continue.

Work above and below-ground has continued, though, as a result of administrative stays — temporary orders — put in place by the district court and a federal appeals court in Washington.

But the Justice Department has now asked the Supreme Court to intervene and freeze the district court’s injunction after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this month that the White House cannot construct the ballroom without authorization from Congress.

If the high court does not act by Friday, the D.C. Circuit’s decision will take effect and construction of the ballroom must be halted.

As part of the Trump administration’s request for emergency relief, it submitted a declaration from Joshua Fisher, the director for White House Management and Administration who is overseeing the project, that sheds light on the volume of material being used for the project and the amount of work done already.

The ballroom is being funded by private donors, and so far, $355 million of $400 million has been raised, according to Fisher. He said a 250-person crew is working 20 hours per day, seven days a week, and 65% of the project is done. Already installed are all below-grade structures, a grand staircase structure, a kitchen structure and a Colonnade movie theater structure, according to the declaration.

The building will be made of concrete and steel, and Fisher said it will be completed by November. The facade is set to be “substantially” finished by April, and the entire project is expected to be wrapped by August 2028, according to Fisher. By then, Mr. Trump will have five months left in his term.

The superstructure has been built up to roof-level, rising up to 70 feet in some places, and has a footprint of 50,000 square feet, Fisher said. The structural foundation, meanwhile, reaches 50 feet below ground. 

He provided further details on three major components of the project: the concrete structure, the facades and mechanical, electrical and plumbing. 

As to the concrete structure, 6.4 million pounds of rebar has been placed and 18,000 cubic yards of concrete has been poured. Fisher described the concrete as “the hardest and strongest concrete there is, the type used in nuclear power plants — it is impermeable, and virtually impossible to deconstruct.”

By Friday, when the district court’s injunction takes effect absent Supreme Court action, Fisher said the White House expects to install another 1 million pounds of rebar and pour another 3,000 cubic yards of concrete. 

Three million pounds of steel has also been obtained and is being readied for installation, according to Fisher’s declaration.

For the facades, the White House has acquired 1 million pounds of steel and 60,000 pounds of aluminum finishes. It has also quarried nearly all of the limestone required, Fisher said. Renderings provided to the Supreme Court show gold-plated presidential seals affixed to the outside of the building.

As to mechanical, electrical and plumbing work, the construction crew has installed five miles of conduit, obtained 1,700 linear feet of plumbing pipe and installed 500 linear feet of that piping.

By Friday, the White House expects to install another mile of conduit and to put in place another 200 linear feet of plumbing pipe.

Mr. Trump’s East Wing project will also feature Corinthian columns like those at the Supreme Court. Fisher said the columns at the White House are being made from “the highest-grade” Indiana limestone, which was shipped to Italy, and are being carved “by some of the greatest artists anywhere in the world.”

According to the White House, the structure will include bomb shelters; hospital and medical facilities; top-secret military facilities; drone-proof ceilings, walls, windows and roofs; bullet, ballistic and blast-proof glass; and a drone port on top.