President Donald Trump has selected a new architect to oversee his $300 million White House ballroom project, a White House spokesman said on Thursday.
The change comes after the Washington Post reported Trump and the previous architect disagreed about the size and scope of the addition.
Architect Shalom Baranes will take over as the lead on the project from James McCrery, who will remain as a consultant. The Post reported that McCrery had advised restraint to prevent the new ballroom from dwarfing the existing White House structure.
The National Capital Planning Commission may have some say in the ultimate size of the project. The White House plans to submit its proposal for the ballroom for approval by the NCPC, but has not yet done so. A top Trump aide, staff secretary Will Scharf, heads the NCPC. Trump aides have said the NCPC has authority over the construction phase of the ballroom but not over the demolition that preceded it.
Supposedly it’s bribe money that’s paying for it. There are a lot of corporate donors giving a shit ton of money. Which is worse, to be fair.
Also, I don’t think people understand how big 90,000 sq. ft is. I haven’t looked into the plans, but small footprint means a lot of stories. I’m guessing by the architect not wanting to be a part of it, he’s going tall.
According to the White House Historical Society, The “White House” is around 13.3K sq ft. as a footprint. Times that by 3 for 3 floors and we’re at 40k sq. ft. It doesn’t say if that included the east and west wing. I’m guessing yeah, so some of that is gone.
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-backgrounders/white-house-dimensions