New architect chosen to lead White House Ballroom project
Plans for the White House ballroom are moving forward under new architectural guidelines after controversy over the project’s size.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is considering building a second floor in the White House’s West Wing colonnade to balance the size and shape of the building with a future addition to the East Wing, where a new ballroom is planned.
Shalom Baranes, the ballroom’s lead architect, said on January 8 that the White House is considering a “modest one-story addition” to the west wing colonnade that would “help restore a sense of symmetry” with the east wing, which would include a revamp of the two-story colonnade leading to the ballroom.
Baranes, who discussed the concept with the 12-member National Capital Planning Commission, said the height of the expanded West Wing’s colonnade would match the height of the historic main White House building.
The White House will submit conceptual plans to the Central Planning Agency in Washington on January 8, and will submit more advanced designs at a subsequent meeting.
Baranes said the entire project will be 89,000 square feet, but the ballroom itself will be about 22,000 square feet and 30 to 40 feet tall. He said the banquet hall would be able to accommodate 1,000 guests.
White House chief of staff Will Scharf, who chairs the committee, called the committee’s first formal review of the ballroom plan “the beginning of a process.” Schaaf echoed President Trump’s assertion that the ballroom is needed to host the large official events that currently take place under a tent on the South Lawn of the White House.
This is a developing story.
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