The White House is preparing for more guests.
President Donald Trump‘s administration announced that construction on a new ballroom in the historic building is set to begin next month.
“The White House is currently unable to host major functions,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during the July 31 press briefing, “honoring world leaders in other countries, without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building’s entrance.”
“The White House ballroom will be a much-needed and exquisite addition of approximately 90,000 total square feet of innately designed and carefully crafted space with a seated capacity of 650 people,” she continued, “which is a significant increase from the 200-person seated capacity in the East Room of the White House.”
Leavitt noted that the approximately $200 million project—which requires the demolition of the East Wing as well as constructing the ballroom—was made possible by Trump and other donors who “committed to donating funds necessary.” The construction, according to the official, will “be completed long before the end of President Trump’s term.”
“The White House ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, its theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical,” she explained. “The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed and reconstructed East Wing currently sits.”
Mock-ups of the ballroom, similar to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Florida, feature several arched windows on each wall and a gold and white ornate plaster ceiling.
Trump told NBC News that the new ballroom would be “his gift to the country.”
The construction will be the biggest renovation since President Harry Truman completely gutted the White House in 1949, after the building was left in disrepair following neglect during the Great Depression and World War II, according to the Harry S. Truman Library Institute.
Trump has continued making changes to the White House since returning to office in January, including paving over the historic Rose Garden, which was created in 1903 by First Lady Edith Roosevelt, as well as replacing decor in the Oval Office with gold pieces.
(E! News and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
