By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Thursday announced that construction on a new $200 million ballroom will begin in September and be ready before President Donald Trump ‘s term ends in early 2029.
It will be the latest change introduced to what’s known as “The People’s House” since the Republican president returned to office in January. It also will be the first structural change to the Executive Mansion since the addition of the Truman balcony in 1948.
Trump has substantially redecorated the Oval Office through the addition of golden flourishes and cherubs, presidential portraits and other items and installed massive flagpoles to fly the American flag on the north and south lawns. Workers are currently finishing a project to replace the lawn in the Rose Garden with stone.
Trump for months has been promising to build a ballroom, saying the White House doesn’t have space big enough to hold large events and scoffing at the notion of hosting heads of state and other guests in tents on the lawn as past administrations have done for state dinners attended by hundreds of guests.
The East Room, the largest room in the the White House, can accommodate about 200 people.
As he and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held talks in the ballroom of the hotel on his golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, on Sunday, Trump praised the space and said it was what he envisioned adding to the White House.
“The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years, but they never had a real estate person. You know, nobody, no president knew how to build a ballroom,” he said, harkening back to his early career in real estate and construction.
He said the Turnberry ballroom had been “quite the success” since it opened a short time ago. That ballroom “boasts a generous capacity of up to 500 guests,” according to the hotel’s website.
“I was just saying I could take this one, drop it right down there and it would be beautiful,” Trump said. “This is exactly what they’ve wanted.”
The 90,000-square-foot ballroom, announced on Thursday, will be built where the East Wing currently sits and will have a seated capacity of 650 people. The East Wing is home to several offices, including the first lady’s. Those offices will be temporarily relocated during construction while that wing of the building is modernized and renovated, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Nothing will be torn down,” she said.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said the president and his White House are “fully committed” to working with the appropriate organizations to preserve the mansion’s “special history.”
“President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail,” Wiles said in a statement.
Leavitt said at her briefing Thursday that Trump and other donors have committed to raising the approximately $200 million in construction costs. She did not name any of the other donors.
Renderings of what the future ballroom will look like were posted on the White House website.
Trump has chosen McCrery Architects, based in Washington, as lead architect on the project. The construction team will be led by Clark Construction. Engineering will be provided by AECOM.
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