On giving the White House a big beautiful ballroom, Trump may be right

For a man like Donald Trump, desperately in search of an indelible legacy and congenitally needing to be the centre of news attention, it was only a matter of time before he got round to building a grand ballroom at the White House.

Why not a US$300 million solution to the problem of having to entertain national and global elites in a tent, and the embarrassment of women’s high heels getting stuck in the White House lawn? As US President Trump toils to make America great again, why should the world’s hegemon not boast the best, biggest ballroom ever?

There are those among Washington’s elites who complain that a 90,000 sq ft ballroom able to host 999 elite guests and expected to be replete with Mar-a-Lago-style bling is too costly and lavish. The architectural community is also split on the propriety of replacing the East Wing with a structure overwhelmingly out of proportion with the existing buildings – like a luxury liner tethered alongside a river barge.

Trump has pre-empted protests about the cost by getting generous private donors – including himself – to fund the project. But the timing could have been better, as the US government goes into its sixth week of shutdown, with tens of millions of Americans struggling without their food stamps.

Accusations of unseemly haste were also inevitable, given that he demolished the East Wing in a mere four days, without approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, which is responsible for approving construction and renovation of government buildings in Washington.

But complaints about vanity projects stand less scrutiny, whatever Trump’s embarrassing affection for bling: his predecessors have tinkered with the White House since it was first built – and after the British burned it down in the War of 1812. Theodore Roosevelt added the West Wing in 1902. Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East Wing in 1942. Harry Truman oversaw a gutting of the White House from 1948 to 1952. John F. Kennedy extended the Rose Garden in 1962. Trump’s quest for a ballroom hardly sets a precedent.

  

​Read More