Trump’s White House ballroom is too big, architect says, as 2nd panel prepares to vote on it

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump ’s White House ballroom project is way too big and should be scaled back, an architect and member of the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation said Wednesday — one of a number of changes he has suggested for a project he says could permanently alter the nation’s most recognizable historic home.

David Scott Parker, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects whose firm specializes in residential design and historic preservation, shared his views with The Associated Press as a key federal agency, the National Capital Planning Commission, prepared to meet Thursday to vote on whether to approve the 90,000-square-foot (8,361-square-meter) project. A separate federal panel, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, approved the project at its February meeting.

“Everything here feels inflated,” said Parker, who has been an architect for more than 35 years. “The net effect of this is to adversely impact what is the most important historic — the most identifiable historic — house in the entire United States. This is permanent, what it will do to the White House.”

Trump announced last summer he would be add a ballroom to the White House, citing the need for space other than a tent on the lawn to entertain important guests. He demolished the East Wing in October with little warning and underground construction to prepare the site has been underway since then. White House officials have said above-ground construction would not start before April, at the earliest.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private, nonprofit group, asked a federal judge to temporarily halt construction until the White House submitted the construction plans to both federal panels and to Congress for approval, and allowed the public to comment. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected the request last week, and the Trust has said it plans to file an amended lawsuit.

Parker’s architectural analysis was based on renderings and other information the White House submitted to the fine arts commission last month.

The ballroom itself takes up about 22,000 square feet (2,043 square meters) of the total space, and Parker said that is far larger than needed for the 1,000 guests Trump has said it would accommodate. The industry standard for a ballroom allots 15 square feet (1.4 square meters) per person, Parker said. By that measure, Trump’s ballroom could be 47% smaller — or no bigger than 15,000 square feet (1,394 square meters), he said.

The proposal includes a 4,000-square-foot (372 square meters), south-facing porch and staircase. Parker said these are unnecessary since they don’t provide guests with direct access to the interior of the building. He said the porch doesn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The White House said Wednesday that the ballroom will comply with the federal law requiring accommodations for people with disabilities, but did not provide further comment on Parker’s critique.

The proposed portico is significantly larger than the portico on the south side of the White House and the south side of the Treasury Department building nearby.

Concerns about the project’s size have followed it from the start. At nearly twice the size of the main White House itself, which is 55,000 square feet (5,110 square meters), critics have argued the addition would overwhelm the mansion and throw off the symmetry of the complex.

Parker said his other main concern is that the addition would stick out just enough so that it impedes the line of sight along Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol as it was purposely designed hundreds of years ago by Pierre L’Enfant, who was hired by George Washington to lay out the U.S. capital.

“It’s hard to fathom that … one addition could have so many adverse impacts, symbolically, architecturally and historically,” Parker said. “This literally violates the Founding Fathers’ intentions.”

Parker is listed among more than 100 people registered to speak at Thursday’s commission meeting, which is scheduled to be conducted online, according to the agency’s website. Thousands of people submitted comments in advance and many were opposed to Trump’s project.