Plans Revealed for Major East Wing Ballroom Addition (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Plans for the East Wing ballroom have been revealed.

[00:00:03] Speaker 2: We have the ballroom with the portico, the terrace at the half level.

[00:00:07] Speaker 1: The ballroom itself will be about 22,000 square feet and can accommodate 1,000 guests. Architect Shalom Baranis says the 89,000 square foot White House addition will also have a grand foyer and a grand staircase. The ballroom will have 38 to 40 foot ceilings, along with what was described as basically a commercial kitchen.

[00:00:24] Speaker 2: This large space, which is devoted to food service.

[00:00:28] Speaker 1: The current kitchen is much smaller and located in the basement of the White House. Plus, there will be a suite of offices for the First Lady's staff, who are currently without office space after the East Wing demo. And a new movie theater to replace the old one.

[00:00:41] Speaker 2: For a future addition, a one-story addition to the West Wing.

[00:00:45] Speaker 1: And for the first time, we also heard about a proposal to add on to the other side of the White House.

[00:00:50] Speaker 2: The White House is therefore considering the idea of a modest one-story addition to the West Wing colonnade, which would serve to restore a sense of symmetry around the original Central Pavilion.

[00:01:03] Speaker 1: He was presenting to the 12-member National Capital Planning Commission, which is largely comprised of Trump-installed loyalists like Staff Secretary Will Scharf and Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair. But some members did raise concerns about the project's scope. For some perspective, the White House Executive Mansion is just 55,000 square feet.

[00:01:21] Speaker 3: So maybe it can be and needs to be shrunk a little bit more. It's just so imbalanced.

[00:01:27] Speaker 1: There will be a public comment period and a vote by the commission in the next few months, with a buff ground construction expected to begin as soon as April.