Architects Make Case for a Smaller White House Ballroom

Upcoming commission meeting draws more than 100 people for public online comment.

The view, taken in January from the top of the Washington Monument, of the construction site for the proposed East Wing Modernization project that includes a proposed 22,000-square-foot White House ballroom. The East Wing of the White House was demolished in October. (Credit: G. Edward Johnson)

Architects alarmed by the scale and symmetry of the proposed White House ballroom and East Wing Modernization plan held a public webinar last week breaking down the design’s historic and architectural flaws with hopes to offer softer alternatives to the project’s mass and spur outcry in the days leading up to the deadline for public comments ahead of a critical National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) meeting.

In the webinar presented by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, an organization that has sued the president to halt the project, architects pointed out aspects of the proposal that they say defy the historic planning of the city and the vision of George Washington who commissio…