Ballroom Architect Says Trump May Alter West Wing, Too

Even on the most slapdash HGTV home-renovation shows, contractors come up with a building plan prior to “demo day.” But the unveiling of new plans for Donald Trump’s White House ballroom at a meeting of the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday underscored that the details of the project are still being worked out three months after the East Wing was reduced to rubble.

Despite the handful of protesters outside, the meeting was not obviously political or heated — largely because Trump stacked the NCPC with sympathetic appointees well before the ballroom project started. While federal preservation law says the Commission must vet even minor renovation projects at the White House, newly appointed commission chair Will Scharf — who is also a top White House aide — has argued that the panel has no jurisdiction over demolition. So supposedly Trump was free to knock down the East Wing though the panel hadn’t seen any detailed plans until today.

The first 90 minutes of the NCPC meeting were devoted to more mundane projects around the capital, like a new habitat at the National Zoo. Then Josh Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, kicked off the ballroom presentation by claiming that it was more economical to knock down the entire East Wing rather than transforming the existing space as it was riddled with problems like an unstable colonnade, water leakage, and mold contamination.

“Because of this and other factors, the cost analysis proved that demolition and reconstruction provided the lowest total cost ownership and most effective long-term strategy,” Fisher said.

So why didn’t the White House say this before demolition started, or even when people demanded to know why construction vehicles were suddenly tearing into the East Wing on October 20? When D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who is also on the NCPC panel, asked why the White House didn’t seek approval for the destruction of the East Wing and the construction of a ballroom before work got underway, Fisher said “there are some things guarding this project that are frankly of top-secret nature.”

When asked why the ballroom proposal didn't go to the National Capital Planning Commission before demolition began, a White House official claims "there are some things guarding this project, that are, frankly, of top secret nature" pic.twitter.com/nWi8ImEW19

— FactPost (@factpostnews) January 8, 2026

Next, Shalom Baranes, who took over the project after Trump reportedly clashed with the original architect about the ballroom’s size, shared the current plans for the building. Many of the specs were very different from what Trump has revealed in bits and pieces over the past few months. While the White House initially described a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, Baranes said it would have a footprint of about 45,000 feet, but it would be two stories. The lower level will feature a large kitchen, the First Lady’s offices, and a movie theater (which was in the previous East Wing and was previously thought to be gone for good). The upper level will feature a ballroom of about 22,000 square feet that can seat about 1,000 guests.

Baranes is a respected architect whose firm has handled large projects in Washington for decades. He seemed focused on improving the function and flow of the White House, which he said is currently “quite labyrinthian.” He subtly suggested that he convinced Trump to stop expanding the ballroom’s footprint, saying they decided to cease “exploring options for expanding” after he joined the project in November. And he talked about strategies for making the White House exterior look visually cohesive and balanced despite the addition of a massive ballroom.

This section of Baranes’s presentation contained some more surprises. He said the ballroom will be as tall as the White House’s main mansion, though as the Washington Post noted, “that breaks with long-standing architectural norms requiring additions to be shorter than the main building” and differs from the original plan:

Architect Shalom Baranes told the National Capital Planning Commission that the president’s plans call for the building to be about 60 feet high on its north side and 70 feet high on its south side. That differs from representations made as recently as August, when a National Park Service official said the building would be 55 feet tall, according to an environmental assessment.

“The heights will match exactly,” Baranes told the panel.

Baranes also said they may add a one-story addition to the West Wing’s colonnade to balance out the newly massive East Wing.

“We’re considering the idea of a modest one-story addition to the West Wing,” Baranes said. “The reason to think about that is so that we would reinstate the symmetry around the central pavilion of the White House.”

He added, “We have not looked at that at all yet. We hope to do so in the future.”

After the presentation, Trump appointees heaped praise on the vaguely outlined project. However, some other panel members gently expressed their concerns about the ballroom “overwhelming” the existing White House. Mendelson suggested leveling things out by simply lowering the ceilings in Trump’s grand ballroom by a few feet. Baranes said that might be possible, though some foundation work has already started.

So it sounds like the design is still in flux. Trump’s ballroom project could expand to other parts of the White House, but at least some people involved in the project are trying to ensure that the less gaudy angels of our nature prevail.