Trump plots dramatic one-story West Wing expansion too

The architect helming the design for President Donald Trump's controversial White House ballroom project revealed new details Thursday, including plans for a West Wing expansion.

Shalom Baranes presented the early designs to the National Capital Planning Commission, the body that oversees federal construction projects in Washington.

The presentation marked the first public look at Trump's ambitious renovation plans, which have already seen the East Wing demolished to make way for the new ballroom.

The current plans call for rebuilding the White House's East Colonnade - which was torn down along with the East Wing - as a two-story structure instead of the original single level.

The redesign would allow guests to enter the ballroom through the historic East Room inside the Executive Mansion, the main White House building. 

But the two-story colonnade would make the White House look lopsided, so Baranes disclosed that the White House may add a one-story extension to the West Wing to restore 'symmetry' following the East Wing overhaul. 

The current one-story West Colonnade - which Trump walked out on in August and teased that he was building 'something beautiful' - currently houses the White House briefing room and reporters' offices.

An outdoor section of the structure currently contains Trump's 'Presidential Walk of Fame' - where the president wrote plaques dissing some of his Democratic predecessors. 

'Here you see the upper level of the East Colonnade and the potential for a future addition, a one-story addition to the West Wing, and that would occur right here,' the architect said, bringing along large cardboard renderings of the plans.

'And you see, the reason to think about that is so we would reinstate the symmetry around the central pavilion of the White House,' Baranes explained. 

Later in the presentation when Baranes was questioned about a possible West Wing expansion, he clarified, ‘It would be just to the colonnade' - so no two-story Oval Office would be in store. 

The project has received criticism due to the White House not being initially being transparent about plans to demolish the East Wing - which originally dated back to 1902 but was reconstructed in 1942 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in part to hide a White House bunker.

The ballroom has also raised eyebrows due to it being completely funded by donors - including companies that have business before the U.S. government.

Ahead of Thursday's meeting, a group of about a dozen protesters, including some from the watchdog group Common Cause, gathered outside NCPC's headquarters holding up signs including 'corruption never looked so tacky.' 

Inside the meeting, NCPC Chairman Will Scharf - Trump's handpicked leader who also serves as White House Staff Secretary - advised the handful of members of the public in attendance to keep the peace.

Scharf acknowledged there was an agenda item, 'the ballroom,' that has attracted 'passionate comments on both sides.'

'While there will be opportunities for public comment on the ballroom project in the future, we would ask that you not disrupt the commission meeting today and if you do make an out of order disruption of the commission, we will, unfortunately, have to ask you to leave the room,' Scharf said.

Scharf also apologized in advance if he got moody. 

'To those of you who have made New Year's resolutions, I quit Nicotine eight days ago, so if I am irritable or less enthusiastic or energetic, that's the reason,' the chairman said to laughs.

He reiterated during the meeting that he believed NCPC didn't oversee demolitions, which allowed the East Wing to be torn down in October without any government oversight. 

No disruptions interrupted the meeting, with the only pushback to the ballroom plans coming from members of the committee who represented the city.

Baranes, who took over the project from architect James McCrery in November, said late that month a decision was made 'not to continue exploring options for increasing the size of the project.' 

There were rumblings that Trump wanted the ballroom to be even bigger - as the pricetag of the project has now inflated to around $400 million. 

The current plans for the ballroom are based off of one of the plans McCrery originally designed, which would include a 22,000 square foot ballroom that would fit 1,000 seated guests for dinner.

The overall new structure, which will include the East Wing offices that belonged to the first lady's staff, would be part of the overall 89,000 square foot two-story building. 

Phil Mendelson, a NCPC committee member and the chairman of the D.C. City Council, said he'd like to see the project shrink in size, for fear that the addition would overpower the main White House building. 

'I'm concerned about the significant overwhelming of the original historic building,' he told the committee,' Mendelson said. 

He also expressed concern that the board was only looking at one portion of the White House project at a time.

'The other observation I have is that it is disturbing to me that we are looking at an addition to this historic structure, but we're looking at what appears to be an overall plan in a very segmented approach,' he said. 

'So there's going to be some changes to the visitors' center, there's going to be some changes to Lafayette Park, there's going to be some changes to the West Wing,' he noted, expressing that he's prefer to view the project as a whole. 

Linda Argo, an NCPC commission members appointed by Washington, D.C.'s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bower, also said that she had 'some concerns about the size and scale in a number of ways.' 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has sued over the ballroom project, with a federal judge telling lawyers for the Department of Justice in December, who were defending the White House's position, that plans for the ballroom needed to be submitted to the NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts by the end of 2025.

Scharf told the Daily Mail after the hearing that he thought today's presentation would likely satisfy the judge's request - despite more formalized plans coming from the White House at a later date.

The chairman didn't hide the fact that he was for the project proceeding, pointing to a planned visit by King Charles later this year. 'More likely than not, he will be hosted in a tent on the South Lawn with port-a-potties,' Scharf said.

'That, to me, is not a good look for the United States of America,' he said. 

The White House is hoping to fast-track the project so it will be completed by 2028, Trump's last full year in office.