WASHINGTON — Construction of the new White House ballroom is proceeding ahead of schedule and has grown large enough to fully enclose the White House itself, according to officials familiar with the project, who described the development as “historic” and “exactly what everyone wanted, if they’re being honest.”
The ballroom, built on the site of the former East Wing at an announced cost of $300 million to $400 million, was cleared to continue construction in August, when the Supreme Court paused a lower-court ruling that would have halted above-ground work. Government lawyers said in court filings that the structure should be substantially finished by November and that the project was “beyond the point of return.” According to officials, it has since passed several additional points, including the original property line, the North Lawn, and, as of late September, the White House.
“People said it couldn’t be done. They were thinking of a normal-sized room,” said Brent Sallow, deputy assistant undersecretary for ballroom affairs, a position created in March. “This is not a normal-sized room. This is a room that rooms will be held in.”
The executive mansion, which until recently stood beside the construction site, now sits entirely within the ballroom’s main hall, roughly 400 feet from the dance floor, where staff report that it has been fitted with a white tablecloth and a small numbered placard reading “1.” The Oval Office remains fully operational inside it, as does the Rose Garden, which is now indoors and has been designated the ballroom’s “Rose Garden Area.” Officials said the Washington Monument, which the north wall is expected to reach in the spring, will serve as a coat check.
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said the expansion followed naturally from the purpose of a ballroom. “A ballroom is for hosting. The more you can host, the better the ballroom,” Brickhouse said by phone from a hardware store. “If the ballroom contains the White House, then technically every event at the White House is a ballroom event. It’s just common sense. It’s efficient.”
Prof. Desmond Achterberg, who holds the Prewitt Chair in Comparative Annoyance at Ellery State University, said the project placed the nation in distinguished historical company. “The great ballrooms of Europe were built to impress visiting dignitaries,” Achterberg said. “This one has been built to impress the building it was attached to, and I’m told it has.”
Interior features announced this week include 1,400 chandeliers, a gold-leaf ceiling visible from commercial aircraft, a second, smaller ballroom inside the first for more intimate gatherings, and a third ballroom inside the second, which officials said would be used “for when the second ballroom needs a break.” Each ballroom is decorated identically to the one around it, and staff have been issued maps.
A spokesperson for the Continental Office of Lawn Management said the office had been notified that the National Mall would be incorporated into the ballroom’s grounds by early 2027 and was “trying to get its things out.”
Sallow said the administration had no plans to stop the ballroom from growing further, adding that the original plans called for a ballroom “about the size of the country,” and that, given the current pace of work, the team was “honestly ahead.”
Glenn Whitacre filed this report by phone from inside the ballroom, where he said he had been walking toward the exit since Tuesday and could see it.