If President Donald Trump has his way, a building called the People’s House in the capital of the longest-standing democracy could one day get an annex with interior design meant to resemble a seat of power for a European king, authoritarian, or czar. Or at the very least, a hotel and casino themed to look like one.
Trump shared renderings of the interior of the disputed White House ballroom on his social network on September 13. The renderings depict a space that looks more Moscow or French Baroque than D.C. or even Mar-a-Lago.
Expansive hallways with large windows stretch beneath tall ceilings ornamented with chandeliers. And—of course—there are gold accents throughout. Rather than the neoclassical look associated with federal architecture in the nation’s capital, the design recalls the extravagance of Moscow’s Grand Kremlin Palace.
“The ballroom looks like a whitewashed version of Versailles,” says Annie Elliott, a Washington, D.C., interior designer. She characterized Trump as a wannabe Louis XIV, who ruled France from the palace just outside Paris from 1643 to 1715.
While the opulent, gold interior design isn’t surprising considering Trump’s tastes and ongoing renovation projects, it certainly doesn’t look like the D.C. we’ve come to know.
The architecture of the White House is deliberately restrained in scale and style to reflect the American republic’s democratic ideals, argues Jorge Salgado, cofounder and principle at Pelletier Salgado Architects. Part of its beauty is the fact that a powerful president lives in a relatively modest building. Meanwhile, Trump’s renderings look like a European copy that borrows visual symbols of power and wealth.
“Based on the renderings alone, this structure, like the grand palaces of historic monarchies it obviously evokes, is meant to project power, and its design is saturated with what those of us in the profession would call pastiche,” or imitation, Salgado says.
In a ruling last month, the U.S. Supreme Court did not weigh in on the legality of Trump’s move to build a ballroom without congressional approval on the site of the former East Wing, which he tore down without permission. Rather, it issued a procedural ruling that rejected the plaintiff National Trust for Historic Preservation’s claim as insufficient for standing, and thereby allowed construction to continue.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation had sued the administration over the project, arguing only Congress can approve major changes to the White House structure.
When Trump announced his plans for a ballroom last year, he estimated it would cost $200 million, a price tag that later doubled to $400 million. More recent estimates are significantly higher. The Trump administration now believes construction could cost as much as $600 million, with half of that paid by taxpayers, according to The Washington Post.
On a technical level, the renderings are fine even if the proposed structure is oversized. “The proportions are grand, there is symmetry and rhythm, and clearly thought has gone into creating a sense of importance,” interior designer Sarah Boardman says, but she considers them a missed opportunity, since they reach backward for very familiar symbols of Russian and European palatial opulence instead of asking what an important American civic room should look like in the 21st century.
“There is an aspirational quality to it that also reminds me of the architectural psychology of Las Vegas,” Boardman says. “Resorts there borrow recognizable symbols of European luxury and grandeur because those symbols instantly communicate that you’ve entered someplace extraordinary. The architecture makes you feel important simply by being in it.”
That’s effective design psychology, she says, but adds, “I don’t know that it’s a particularly interesting new American architectural idea.”
