Australia and the World Past and Present

The East Wing of the White House has been demolished.

The East Wing was added during World War II to hide construction of an underground bunker known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.

At the time, the East Wing was not intended to be grand or permanent.

Since that time, it has been the domain of First Ladies, their offices and their staff.

The building also housed a movie theatre.

The demolished East Wing is to make way for a grand ballroom. It is proposed that it will accommodate around 1000 guests and is to be funded by private donors.

It appears that no permit for the work has been granted by the National Capital Planning Commission.

Nor was there public consultation.

Private donors are to include Google, Amazon, YouTube, Apple, Coinbase (a large US cryptocurrency exchange), Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, the Winklevoss twins and Catepillar.

The White House lacks a proper ballroom. Arguably, the White House needs to have a space that can project an appropriate status to visiting world leaders.

Additionally, a new ballroom may relive pressure on the Executive Residence which contains many historic rooms.

The Lincoln Bedroom

Renovations of the bathroom adjoining the Lincoln bedroom are now complete.

It was last renovated in the 1940s, in art deco style and featuring dark green tiles.

The bathroom is now encased in marble and showcases gold fittings.

A chandelier rounds out the ambiance.

It is unclear where the marble comes from. The US does have its own marble quarries – in Vermont and Georgia.

The Danby Marble Quarry in Vermont has been operating for more than 100 years and claims to be the largest underground marble quarry in the world.

The East Wing was not initially intended to be permanent. But over time, it has become almost taken for granted that it should be preserved largely as it was.

It is possible to mount a case that a function space, such as the proposed ballroom, is necessary. But Trump has dispatched with orderly planning conventions.

Trump is inspired by the gold and marble seen in the residences of European kings and queens centuries ago.

Trump Tower was the obvious early example of Trump’s decor tastes. Later, his resort, Mar-a-Lago, was renovated to suit his style. Now it is the White House’s turn.

There are no delays, no time-delaying consultations or bureaucratic approvals. Trump just does it. I doubt Lincoln would have recognised the previous art deco interior of his bathroom. Who knows what he would make of it now.