(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump can’t seem to stop bragging about his $400 million White House ballroom on the grounds of what was once the East Wing. And now, a New York Times deep dive into the president’s plans is causing some experts to raise call out what the consider to be the project’s hasty and shoddy — and the White House is striking back.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s pet project on X Sunday, writing, “The New York Times had three random people who have ‘studied fine arts,’ ‘long written about urban planning,’ and never built anything to write an article criticizing the new White House ballroom,” Leavitt wrote.
“President Trump and his lead architect have built world-class buildings around the world, and they are ensuring the People’s House finally has a beautiful ballroom that’s been needed for decades — at no expense to the taxpayer.”
The writers of the piece included a trained architect, a fine artist, and an expert on urban planning, according to The Times.
They wrote that The National Capital Planning Commission was scheduled to given final approval to the project on Thursday, which they found curious because the plans seemed to keep changing at the whim of the president.
“As recently as October, the president was still increasing the ballroom’s capacity, the kind of decision needed at the concept stage,” The report said. “And the White House has said it plans to begin building in the spring, a timeline that would mean construction documents would have to be prepared even as the design was still under review.”
The article quoted architect Thomas Gallas saying, “The timeline never made any sense to me.”
“A building on this scale might take its architects and engineers 18 months to two years from initial concept to completed construction documents,” he said.
“Many concerns about the ballroom are also not minor ones,” the report said, continuing:
The proposed East Wing is about 60 percent larger than the White House residence by floor area. But by cubic volume, and including the porticos, it’s more than three times as large because of the ballroom’s vast ceiling height. Viewed from the south, the ballroom’s size will make it the dominant building of the White House complex, with a portico bigger than that of the residence and a lopsided appearance disrupting any symmetry with the West Wing.
In addition, “The south portico, which was not part of the addition’s initial design, also has no doors into the ballroom. And all of the columns will block views and daylight from inside.”
The article also pointed out what it calls numerous design flaws, including “fake windows on the north side,” columns which “block interior ballroom view,” and an “unnecessarily big” rooftop area.
The post Karoline Leavitt Fumes Over NY Times Feature Slamming Design of Trump’s Supersized Ballroom first appeared on Mediaite.
