Palm Beach board says “maybe” to Secret Service guardhouse addition at Mar-A-Lago

Mar-A-Lago’s longtime lead architect presented plans for a new guardhouse addition to the historic property earlier this week, and Palm Beach’s Landmarks Preservation Commission responded with, “try again.”

At a meeting on Wednesday, the club’s lead architect Rick Gonzalez presented plans for a 232-square-foot guardhouse addition to the historic property, at the request of the Secret Service. The island town’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, the board that manages alterations to the area’s historic buildings, sent him back to the drawing board with a long list of edits.

Board members gave Gonzalez 12 days to come up with new drawings, and deferred the decision on the addition to their Feb. 17 meeting.

The addition was specially requested by the Secret Service, which currently oversees all security for the property as the primary residence of former President Donald Trump. The request comes on the heels of an FBI raid at the historic club, and questions of the club’s security have swirled for years.

The proposed guardhouse would sit at the south entrance of the club, located at 1100 South Ocean Boulevard in the heart of Palm Beach. According to the letter of intent submitted by Mar-A-Lago, the club’s security plan requires all guests be name checked, have their identity verified, and submit to a search of themselves and their belongings.

Secret Service would operate these checks out of this guardhouse, were it to be approved.

Gonzalez, who has been the architect for the club since 1997, kicked off his presentation saying his work with historic landmark has, “Always been a fun ride.”

“It really sums up what historic preservation is all about,” he said.

Gonzalez referenced previous alterations to the property, including the addition of a helipad during Trump’s presidency that has since been removed. He offered that the guardhouse has been designed as temporary, something that can be removed from the property once the Secret Service no longer considers Mar-A-Lago the presidential residence.

While Mar-A-Lago is known mainly today as Donald Trump’s residence and private club, the structure has a nearly century-long history and has been a national landmark since 1980. Designed by iconic Palm Beach architect Marion Sims Wyeth, it was completed in 1927 as the private home of Post Cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. She spent the equivalent of $109 million in today’s dollars to build the 58-bedroom mega mansion.