White House information most detailed plans but for Trump ballroom, East Wing renovation | USAEMALL.com

The White House this week presented its most detailed plans yet for the East Wing renovation, moving one step closer to fulfilling President Trump’s wish for a nearly 90,000-square-foot addition to the executive mansion. The National Capital Planning Commission will evaluate those plans at a hearing in early March.

The submission includes new renderings of the neoclassical structure, relative to other buildings close to the ballroom and from vantage points near the U.S. Capitol, Jefferson Memorial and points around the White House campus. The East Wing, which will house a ballroom, office space and a two-story colonnade, will be built to roughly the same height as the existing executive residence and will be slightly taller than the adjacent Treasury building.

Drawings provided by the project’s architect Shalom Baranes show boxwood hedges and brick pavers lining the building’s east side. 

In a 9-page letter to the commission, director of White House management and administration Josh Fisher said experts studied the existing East Wing structure before concluding demolition was the only way forward. Its structural limitations did not allow for modifications, Fisher wrote.  

“Demolition of the existing East Wing structure and reconstruction of a new East Wing provided the most effective solution to many longstanding issues affecting the White House and delivered the best long-term risk reduction,” Fisher said. 

The East Wing was razed in October. Fisher said heavy equipment has been kept at a distance from the White House mansion to avoid inadvertent damage, and he said that a portion of the building was removed by hand. Contractors monitored vibrations and cracks to protect the existing structure. 

Fisher wrote that the demolition was “methodical….rather than sudden catastrophic destruction,” even though the public was not notified prior to the East Wing’s destruction.

The administration plans to upgrade park grounds surrounding the White House and replace the trailer that currently serves as a visitor security checkpoint. 

Fisher added a team has begun structural analysis of the West Wing colonnade to see if it could support a second story, bringing it into symmetry with the soon-to-built East colonnade. “No decision will be made regarding such a project until these aspects are fully studied and analyzed.”