building a ballroom<\/a> for years, and pushed ahead with his vision when he returned to office in January. His proposal calls for a 90,000-square-foot structure, almost twice the size of the 55,000-square-foot White House itself and able to accommodate 1,000 people. The plan also includes building a more modern East Wing, officials have said. <\/p>\nThe Republican president ordered the demolition despite not yet having sign-off for the ballroom construction from the National Capital Planning Commission, one of several entities with a role in approving additions to federal buildings and property. The White House has yet to submit the ballroom plans for the commission\u2019s review because it is closed during the government shutdown. <\/p>\n
Trump appointed loyalists to the planning commission in July. On Tuesday, he also fired the six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, a group of architectural experts that advises the federal government on historic preservation and public buildings. A new slate of members who are more aligned with Trump\u2019s policies will be named, a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on personnel decisions. The Washington Post was first to report the firings.<\/p>\n
East Wing art and furnishings preserved<\/p>\n
It was the job of the White House curator and their staff to carefully remove, catalogue and store the art, the official portraits of former first ladies, and furnishings from the East Wing, McLaurin said.<\/p>\n
The White House Historical Association does not have a decision-making role in the construction. But it has been working with the White House to prepare for the changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had known since late summer that the staff of the East Wing had moved out. I actually made my last visit on the last day of tours on August the 28th,\u201d McLaurin said.<\/p>\n
Working with the curator and chief usher, the association used 3D scanning technology \u201cso that every room, space, nook and cranny of the East Wing, whether it was molding or hinges or door knobs or whatever it was, was captured to the -nth degree\u201d to be digitally recreated as an exhibit or to teach the history of that space, McLaurin said. <\/p>\n
A photographer also documented the building as it was being taken apart.<\/p>\n
It will be a while before any images are available, but McLaurin said items were found when flooring was pulled up and when wall coverings were pulled back that \u201cno living person remembered were there. So those will be lessons in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
White House has grown over the years <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s aides have responded to criticism of the demolition by arguing that other presidents have made changes to the White House, too. Trump has said the White House needs a bigger entertaining space.<\/p>\n
McLaurin said the building continues to evolve from what it looked like when it was built in 1792.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a need to modernize and to grow,\u201d he said, noting that White House social secretaries for generations have chafed at the space limitations for entertaining. \u201cBut how it\u2019s done and how it\u2019s accomplished and what results is really the vision of the president who undertakes that project.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the White House Historical Association does <\/p>\n
Jacqueline Kennedy created the historical association in 1961 to help preserve the museum quality of the interior of the White House and educate the public. It receives no government funding and raises money mostly through private donations and sales of retail merchandise.<\/p>\n
It is not the mission of the association to take a position on construction, McLaurin said. Its primary mandate is preserving the State Floor and some of the historic bedrooms upstairs in the private living quarters, and teaching the history of the White House, which is an accredited museum. The State Floor is made up of the Green, Blue and Red Rooms, the East Room and State Dining Room, the Cross Hall and Grand Foyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOurs is not to support \u2014 or to not support,\u201d McLaurin said. \u201cOur is to understand, to get the details.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the demolition, McLaurin said he has seen attendance spike at a free-of-charge educational center the association opened in September 2024 a block from the White House. \u201cThe People\u2019s House: A White House Experience\u201d is open seven days a week \u2014 including during the current government shutdown. <\/p>\n
The educational center saw its busiest days the weekend of Oct. 17-19, with about 1,500 daily visitors, up from a previous average of 900, he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Stewart McLaurin knew it was coming. An entire wing of the White House, a building…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":340405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12785,84,69,57,51,167696,50,80,167695,52,121682,61,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-340404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-dc-wire","9":"tag-district-of-columbia","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-jacqueline-kennedy","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-stewart-mclaurin","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-u-s-government-shutdown","19":"tag-u-s-news","20":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115456684047581422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}