Trump shows off new ballroom designs as he defends $400 million project

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Trump's Ballroom Design Has Barely Been Scrutinized (gift link)

Here is the article that pissed off trump. This ball room is poorly designed because trump is too senile to know that you do not have stairwells that lead nowhere

🚨Trump's Ballroom Design Has Barely Been Scrutinized.

Critics warn it still has many issues — its portico is too big, its stairs lead nowhere, fake windows and its columns will block views from inside the ballroom. Gift link ⬇️
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

— DCminx 🕊🌍🔥🌱 (@dcminx.bsky.social) 2026-03-30T11:50:06.353Z

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/29/upshot/white-house-ballroom.html?unlocked_article_code=1.W1A.afQQ.qVDTrxPFKb6j&smid=url-share

But it’s harder to argue that a major addition to the White House needs swifter public scrutiny than its fence (these commissions have meanwhile continued to push back on projects that are not the president’s personal priorities). Many concerns about the ballroom are also not minor ones. And without further work, the details provoking those concerns will become lasting features of the capital.

For starters, the ballroom is set to become the dominant anchor at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue, a link planned by Pierre Charles L’Enfant to connect the Capitol and the White House.....

During the planning commission review earlier this month, the project’s architect, Shalom Baranes, acknowledged that the south portico was more ornamental than functional.

“Is it an absolutely essential part of the program? I would say no, it’s not,” he said. “Really it’s an aesthetic decision to have it there.”

That decision, however, is part of the reason the White House driveway planned by the famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted must be rerouted, breaking its symmetry (the kind of detail the planning commission might have dwelled on in the past).

Inside the East Wing, the ballroom itself is far larger than industry standards suggest is necessary for 1,000 guests (by that standard, it might fit 1,500 people). Mr. Baranes said the extra space was needed to accommodate TV cameras, journalists, security and ceremonial processions. But one result is that events with fewer than 1,000 people could feel empty.