'Staircase to nowhere': Leavitt slams report revealing White House ballroom design 'flaws'

Donald Trump's ballroom at the White House has major design flaws, including a grand staircase in front which serves no purpose in the area, while the true entrance is at the side of the building, and a flurry of columns that block the light inside the building. An architectural analysis of the blueprints carried out by the New York Times has revealed. Work has already started on the ballroom that will replace the East Wing, but a crucial approval vote is due on Thursday. The design proposals were earlier submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and the Commission of Fine Arts. One of the major issues highlighted in the analysis is that the new construction blocks a "sightline" between the building and the US Capitol. Pierre L'Enfant had originally designed the view to represent the power balance between the President and Congress. Other issues include a grand staircase in front that leads nowhere, and several columns that will block the light inside the building.

Karoline Leavitt lashes out at NYT analysis on White House ballroom

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted angrily to the NYT report on the ballroom on Sunday. She dismissed the opinions of three experts quoted in the report in a social media post. "The New York Times had three random people who have 'studied fine arts,' 'long written about urban planning,' and never built anything to write an article criticizing the new White House ballroom," she wrote on X. Leavitt added, that presiden Trump and his lead architect have years of experience with "world-class buildings around the world", and they are "ensuring the People’s House finally has a beautiful ballroom that’s been needed for decades — at no expense to the taxpayer."

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The NYT article is bylined by Larry Buchanan, who has studied fine arts, and Emily Badger, who writes about urban planning. Junho Lee, a trained architect, is the third author of the NYT analysis. The grand ballroom is estimated to cost $400 million, according to Trump, who has said that it is being funded entirely by private donations. "The White House has said it plans to begin building in the spring, a timeline that would mean construction documents would have to be prepared even as the design was still under review." The analysis points out that the 90,000-square-foot ballroom has “fake windows on the north side,” columns blocking the interior ballroom view, and an “unnecessarily big” rooftop area.

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Confusion on timeline of ballroom

Architect Thomas Gallas also points out in the article that the presented timeline "never made any sense to me." The analysis states that "the White House has said it plans to begin building in the spring." But according to this timeline, "construction documents would have to be prepared even as the design was still under review."

It further states that the ballroom ruins the symmetry of the White House, as, when viewed from the south, it appears as the dominant building. The ballroom is also 60 per cent larger than the main residence. The building's south portico has a grand staircase that actually leads nowhere, since there are no doors leading into the ballroom on that side.