Preservation Group Sues Trump Over White House Ballroom

The controversial White House ballroom project is stumbling into a fresh roadblock: litigation.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. A hearing regarding a request for a temporary pause on construction is set for Tuesday.

In the lawsuit, the historical preservation group alleged that Donald Trump and administration officials bypassed several federal reviews when they demolished the East Wing and started planning for the construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

The group — which took pains in the lawsuit to avoid the appearance of partisanship — said outside input on the project’s environmental, historic and aesthetic impact was needed.

“President Trump has full legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House — just like all of his predecessors did,” a White House spokesperson said in response to the suit.

Shrouded in controversy from the start, the $300 million project recently received a reboot when Trump tapped one of Washington D.C.’s most seasoned institutional architects to replace the boutique designer originally picked for the job.

Trump brought in Shalom Baranes — the go-to architect for federal agencies in the nation’s capital — to take over. The White House said it is tasking him with bringing “the greatest addition to the White House since the Oval Office.”

The project sped ahead with little information disclosed to the public. Crews quickly demolished the East Wing, drove piles and hoisted cranes before the National Capital Planning Commission — the body that oversees federal development — had been presented formal plans.

Preservationists and Democrats have argued that the administration has cut corners on oversight. Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced the “No Palaces Act” to force congressional and NCPC review for future White House demolitions and the use of private funding in such projects.

NCPC’s new chair, Will Scharf, said he expects to review proposals this month, saying they are moving “at a normal and deliberative pace” even though the agency wasn’t looped in at the start.

— Holden Walter-Warner