A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump has been talking about wanting to build a White House ballroom for a decade. The project got its first public hearing on Thursday in front of a planning commission now dominated by Trump appointees. Here's NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: In October, when the East Wing of the White House was torn down to make way for President Trump's ballroom, it sparked public outcry. At yesterday's National Capital Planning Commission meeting, Josh Fisher, the White House director of management and administration, said it had to be done.
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JOSH FISHER: The cost analysis proved that demolition and reconstruction provided the lowest total cost ownership.
KEITH: As for what comes next, the architect leading the ballroom project, Shalom Baranes, presented an overview, including drawings and renderings of what the structure as designed would look like next to the existing White House.
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SHALOM BARANES: The heights will match exactly.
KEITH: It will connect to the east room of the White House via a two-story colonnade. The ballroom itself will seat a thousand people and have a footprint of 22,000 square feet. There had been talk of going bigger, but Baranes said...
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BARANES: Further consideration of enlarging the size was abandoned in late November.
KEITH: He said the overall project is 89,000 square feet. The movie theater, which had been demolished last fall with the East Wing, will be rebuilt, along with a commercial kitchen and offices for the First Lady and her staff. A major question is whether the addition will look out of place next to the White House. Commission members mostly reacted with excitement, though Phil Mendelson, who also chairs the D.C. Council, said he has concerns.
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PHIL MENDELSON: It still seems to me that it's overwhelming the existing building.
BARANES: No, it's interesting. I mean, it is the same height.
KEITH: That was Baranes responding. Mendelson also questioned whether ongoing foundation work would foreclose any changes to the plan. Fisher said it wouldn't necessarily, and added this.
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FISHER: There are some things regarding this project that are, frankly, of top-secret nature that we are currently working on.
KEITH: The Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a bunker where the president can retreat in case of emergency, was underneath the old East Wing. The commission didn't vote on the project or take public comment. That will come at a future meeting.
Tamara Keith, NPR News.
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