20 out 2025 ano - Demolition of the East Wing

Descrição:

In July 2025, the White House released renderings of the planned White House State Ballroom. Initially, the venue was expected to be able to host up to 650 people for events, but that capacity was later revised to 900 people. Clark Construction was awarded the $200 million contract, with work planned to begin in September 2025.

On July 31st, President Donald Trump had said the new ballroom "won't interfere with the current building", wouldn't be "touching it", and would pay "total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of."

Demolition of the East Wing began on October 20th, without review by the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction. On October 21st, with unannounced demolition already underway, the National Trust for Historic Preservation objected that a 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) ballroom would "overwhelm" the 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m2) White House and "permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings."

On October 22nd, a White House official told NBC that the "entirety" of the East Wing would eventually be "modernized and rebuilt". The official claimed that the construction plan had never been firm: "The scope and the size of the ballroom project have always been subject to vary as the process develops."

Later on October 22nd, Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event, "We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, you know, the East Wing was not much. It was not much left from the original" and "In order to do it properly, we had to take down the existing structure."

The next day, on October 23rd, photos from the Associated Press showed that the entire East Wing, including the East Colonnade and the White House Family Theater, had been demolished. However, plans have been made to restore the Family Theater so it is "modernized and renovated."

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