Ascend the stairs of President Trump’s future White House ballroom and guests might encounter just one small problem: they lead to nowhere.
The grand, if purely decorative, staircase is just one of a number of design quirks in Donald Trump’s plans for his $400 million East Wing expansion, which critics say are being sped through without proper consideration or oversight.
The National Capital Planning Commission, which reportedly never had a say on the concept design, is set to vote on Thursday whether to approve its final review. It is thought to be a formality with Trump allies populating the panel.
Architects and presidential historians warn it has many issues, including faux windows on the north-facing wall — the side most visible to tourists — to conceal a row of bathroom stalls and an oversized portico and columns that will block views from inside the ballroom.
Viewed from the south, the 90,000 sq ft 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, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Trump described the new marble staircase, which does not lead to the ballroom, as “fire stairs” without elaborating.
The president argued that the White House needed a ballroom because the East Wing previously only hosted 125 people for formal dinners. Larger events were held in tents on the south lawn, where he said soggy ground often left foreign leaders with wet feet.
It is being funded privately by donations from companies including Apple, Google and Amazon.
The proposed East Wing is also about 60 per cent larger than the White House residence by floor area, but by cubic volume it is more than three times as large because of the ballroom’s ceiling height.
Each structure in the capital city has been planned around civic symbols and sightlines since the 1790s. They have strict rules and regulations around building heights, square footage and appearance.
Fifty-eight per cent of Americans said they opposed the Trump administration’s decision to tear down the wing, according to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted last month, while 25 per cent said they supported it.
“This is the People’s House, this is not Donald Trump’s, or Joe Biden’s or the next president’s,” Phil Mendelson, who sits on the planning commission and is the sole dissenter, told The New York Times. “I still don’t understand why the ceiling height has to be 40 feet.”
Trump has already bulldozed the East Wing, which had been built in 1902 during President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration and expanded in 1942 during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is fighting the ballroom in federal court. Should the judge rule against Trump, work may be paused until an appeal can be heard.
The White House defended the plan, pointing out that Trump had made his money during his decades in real estate.
“President Trump is the best builder and developer in the entire world, and the American people can rest well knowing that this project is in his hands,” Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the president touted the new design over the weekend, holding up a rendering of the plans for the new East Room aboard Air Force One.
He said the military was planning a nuclear bunker that will feature “bulletproof glass and drone-proof roofs”.
Trump said there was a national security component in the construction of the ballroom that was “supposed to be secret.”
“Now it’s no secret, the military wanted it more than anybody,” Trump said last Thursday in a cabinet meeting, discussing the ballroom’s construction. “It was supposed to be secret, but it became un-secret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things.”
