Government Coup

[catherine]

Roosevelt did not expand the footprint, he called in an architect and he intentionally built it complement the existing architecture of the White House.

"The fourth and final major reorganization was undertaken by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dissatisfied with the size and layout of President Hoover's West Wing, he engaged New York architect Eric Gugler to redesign it in 1933. To create additional space without increasing the apparent size of the building, Gugler excavated a full basement, added a set of subterranean offices under the adjacent lawn,[13] and built an unobtrusive "penthouse" storey.[10] The directive to wring the most office space out of the existing building resulted in narrow corridors and generally small staff offices. Gugler's most notable change was the addition to the east side containing a new Cabinet Room, Secretary's Office, and Oval Office.[10] The location of the new Oval Office gave presidents greater privacy, allowing them to slip back and forth between the Executive Residence and the West Wing outdoors on the covered portico, without being in the view of the staff or press indoors.[2]"

[pinkytoe]

Not that it would matter to anyone but a gardener but two historic Magnolia trees have been removed to make way for the ballroom. Also, protections for the National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Alaska were removed yesterday.

[Rogar]

Krugman's latest substack was titled, tackiness and tyranny go together. And mentioned it would be in place with a Russian oligarch or Saudi prince. "Trump Dictator Chic". They say the ballroom will be twice the size of the White House itself. It sounds like a few mega corporate donors earned a few Trump bonus points by contributing to it's demolition and construction.

"While the National Trust acknowledges the utility of a larger meeting space at the White House, we are deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself—it is 55,000 square feet—and may also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings. The federally recognized Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation offer clear guidance for construction projects affecting historic properties. The Standards provide that new additions should not destroy the historic fabric of the property and that the new work should be compatible with existing massing, size, scale, and architectural features."

https://savingplaces.org/stories/national-trust-letter-regarding-proposed-construction-of-white-house-ballroom

[catherine]

Rogar, that's exactly what I figured but didn't know how to say. Thanks for posting.

Pinkytoe, yes, regarding the trees, you're right. Trump doesn't think much of living plants, I'm guessing. Here's what he prefers:

[littlebittybobby]

okay----game over, case closed, end of story. I am not an ideologue, or arguing over which sports team is best. But yeah---introducing more minutiae to "prove" your position is NOT going to change my littlebittymind at this point. The whole "demolishing a piece of history" or whatever arguments, when lefties demanded old statues be removed, buildings renamed, etc., is hypocritical. Yup. The real truth is that Fanaticrats are seizing upon anything they can, to gripe, gripe, and gripe. All there is to it. Get a grip--Kamala lost by a landslide. Hope that helps you some. Thankk mee.

[iris lilies]

okay----game over, case closed, end of story. I am not an ideologue, or arguing over which sports team is best. But yeah---introducing more minutiae to "prove" your position is NOT going to change my littlebittymind at this point. The whole "demolishing a piece of history" or whatever arguments, when lefties demanded old statues be removed, buildings renamed, etc., is hypocritical. Yup. The real truth is that Fanaticrats are seizing upon anything they can, to gripe, gripe, and gripe. All there is to it. Get a grip--Kamala lost by a landslide. Hope that helps you some. Thankk mee.

It pains me so much to say: you have a point here about renaming buildings and historic monuments being torn down is ok as long as it suits one’s own political side

Since the media has determined that the topic du jour for us all to fight about is the construction of the White House’s ballroom, I looked into it a bit. My reactions are:

1. I can see the need for a large Hall in which to entertain
2. taxpayers are not on the hook for it so I don’t mind the cost
3. I wish the Commission that overseas the preservation of the White House had been consulted and apparently they were not, that is a major fauxpas
4. I have sat through many public meetings that wrangle about building onto existing historic buildings and tearing down parts of those buildings that are not original, and someone is always unhappy in whatever choice is made. Me, I would prefer to leave the White House as it was, including the East wing.
4. the ballroom rendering I saw uses classic elements that shouldn’t offend most people: big Palladian windows lined up in a row, and a nice transition from the White House to the big ballroom
5. people can bitch and moan about the design all they like, but if you’re going to build a facility to hold 1000 people it’s going to have a big presence, and no matter who designed it, there will be architects who don’t like it
6. Chances are a super star architect (not the guy who drew this one) would make something contemporary and in the eyes of most people, awful.
7. This will not win architecture awards and politics will play only a part of that.

[catherine]

You make good points, iris, but my emotional reaction is I hate the idea of it.

bobby, I agree to close this case. I might have gotten a little hot under the collar about it, but because DH started on this topic yesterday and because I refuse to argue with him over Trump stuff, I kept my mouth shut, and this is where my pent-up words landed.

It's just a building, but it is so embemenatic of a lot of things I dislike about this administration.

[frugal-one]

I miss Biden! Watching the news tonight and seeing all the attacks by trump on other countries (Canada over comments he didn’t like about tarrifs, putting war ships in Carribean etc). The demolition of the white house … raising beef prices here because he is importing it. All this within the first 7 minutes of the news. He’ll get us in a war and is on the way to bancrupting the country.. give another $20billion to Argentina anyone? Trump needs to be gone!

[Rogar]

All Trump has known is money and big city. I suspect he was never in Boy Scouts, went fishing with dad, took walks in the woods (other than golf), never gardened or took vacations to Yellowstone. I sort of doubt that he has any appreciation for historic structures and may have dodged the draft and is spoiled with family money. It might go without saying that he never had a grade school science fair project. His world is money and power and the ballroom is made in his image of success. So good bye to the rose garden and the Magnolia trees and maybe the Alaskan wilderness or anything else that represents the opinions of how the houses of the public should be preserved or expanded. The rest is just quibbling

[iris lilies]

The Rose Garden at the White House has been desecrated with

1. “Concrete courtyard” (Newsweek)
2. “Concrete slab”. (People magazine)
3. “ paved over with concrete”( Architectural Digest)
4. “ paving stones” (NPR)
5. “Pavement” ( Associated Press)
6. “massive expanse of unadorned concrete” (Gardenrant.com)

… and many sources that imply it is a sea of smooth concrete or concrete scored to look like stone.

Only, All the above are lies. NPR gets closest to the truth.

The material used in the White House’s Rose Garden is Indiana limestone cut in squares and laid on the diagonal. That ain’t concrete. Or Cement. Or a composite material. And taxpayers didn’t pay for it.

but that none of that stops mainstream media from spreading lies about it.

Real stone is a good choice but my personal opinion is it’s too white and I doubt it will weather much to soften that brightness, but the whole effect can be softened with the right lawn furniture. I can see beautiful large black urns holding flowering annuals popping against that paving.