The US Commission of Fine Arts overwhelmingly approved design plans for President Donald Trump’s ballroom project at the White House.
The panel made up of Trump appointees signed off on the design after architects made changes in response to commission concerns.
“We have to protect the country and the country’s guests, and this is a facility that is definitely needed for over 150 years,” Chairman Rodney Mims Cook Jr said.
The East Wing of the White House was demolished last fall to make way for the ballroom.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit, sued to halt ballroom construction, saying plans for the project did not comply with the legally mandated review processes.
Trump has argued the White House needs a ballroom because present facilities are inadequate to host important national events and foreign dignitaries.
He has said the building will be “the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world” and will be paid for with money donated from private sources. The ballroom was initially expected to have capacity of 500 people but it has since been expanded to 1350.
The ballroom project has faced stiff opposition from historic preservation groups and sections of the public.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever – not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,” the National Trust for Historic Preservation said in its federal lawsuit.
“And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.” The case is still in litigation.
The commission’s Secretary Thomas Luebke said the panel had received over 2,000 comments from the public and that they were “overwhelmingly in opposition – over 99% to this project”.
Commission Vice Chairman James McCrery abstained from discussions and the vote at Thursday’s meeting. His architecture firm was initially selected by Trump to handle the ballroom, but the administration switched architects on the project to Shalom Baranes.
Two new Trump-appointed members of the commission were sworn in at the start of the meeting, including Chamberlain Harris, a White House aide.
The ballroom project still needs approval from the 12-member panel of the National Capital Planning Commission, whose next meeting to discuss the ballroom is in early March.
Six of its members are Trump-appointees and two others are Republicans from the US Congress.
The ballroom is not the only major construction Trump is pursuing in the US capital. He has also announced plans to build a triumphal arch as part of plans to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary.
By BBC News
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