WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday announced that construction on a massive, new $200 million ballroom will begin in September and be ready before President Donald Trump's term ends in early 2029.
It will be the latest change introduced to what's known as "The People's House" since the Republican president returned to office in January. It also will be the first structural change to the Executive Mansion itself since the addition of the Truman balcony in 1948.
An American flag flies in front of the White House, July 23, in Washington.
Trump has substantially redecorated the Oval Office through the addition of golden flourishes and cherubs, presidential portraits and other items, and installed massive flagpoles on the north and south lawns to fly the American flag. Workers are currently finishing up a project to replace the lawn in the Rose Garden with stone.
Trump for months has been promising to build a ballroom, saying the White House doesn't have space big enough for large events and scoffing at the notion of hosting heads of state and other guests in tents on the lawn as past administrations have done for state dinners attended by hundreds of guests.
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The East Room, the largest room in the the White House, can accommodate about 200 people.
Trump said he's been planning the construction for some time.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up photos of the planned new White House ballroom during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, July 31.
"They've wanted a ballroom at the White House for more than 150 years but there's never been a president that was good at ballrooms," Trump told reporters Thursday. "I'm good at building things and we're going to build quickly and on time. It'll be beautiful, top, top of the line."
He said the new ballroom would not interfere with the mansion itself.
"It'll be near it but not touching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of," he said of the White House. "It's my favorite. It's my favorite place. I love it."
Trump said the ballroom will serve administrations to come.
The White House is pictured before President Donald Trump departs, July 24, in Washington.
"It'll be a great legacy project," he said. "I think it will be really beautiful."
The 90,000-square-foot ballroom will be built where the East Wing sits with a seated capacity of 650 people. The East Wing houses several offices, including the first lady's. Those offices will be temporarily relocated during construction and that wing of the building will be modernized and renovated, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"Nothing will be torn down," she said.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said the president, whose early career was in real estate and construction, and his White House are "fully committed" to working with the appropriate organizations to preserve the mansion's "special history."
"President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail," Wiles said in a statement.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds up photos of the planned new White House ballroom during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, July 31.
Leavitt said at her briefing Thursday that Trump and other donors have committed to raising the approximately $200 million in construction costs. She did not name any of the other donors.
Renderings of what the future ballroom will look like were posted on .
The president chose McCrery Architects, based in Washington, as lead architect on the project. The construction team will be led by Clark Construction. Engineering will be provided by AECOM.
Trump also has another project in mind. He told NBC News in an interview that he intends to replace what he said was a "terribly" remodeled bathroom in the famous Lincoln Bedroom with one that is closer in style to the 19th century.
Photos: The White House Rose Garden through the years
President John Kennedy walks toward the microphones on the White House portico outside his office on July 13, 1961, in Washington to address a group of 1,827 teenagers from 51 countries, exchange students who have been in the United States the past year. The students jammed the Rose Garden. Some were pushed to the ground in a surge to get closer to the president.
President Ronald Reagan is pulled along by his pet dog Lucky, while he and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher take a stroll Feb. 20, 1985, in the White House Rose Garden.
President Ronald Reagan delivers the commencement speech to the John A. Holmes High School senior class from Edenton, N.C., in May 13, 1986, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
President George H. W. Bush holds a news conference April 11, 1992, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
View of flowers in the Rose Garden of the White House June 12, 1996, with the Oval Office in the background.
President Clinton, flanked by National Turkey Federation (NTF) Chairman Frank Gessell, left, and NTF Secretary Treasurer Jerry Jerome, watch a 45-pound turkey in the Rose Garden of the White House, Nov. 24, 1998, where the president, in a pre-Thanksgiving tradition, pardoned the bird.
President George Bush makes a statement about the transition of the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, Nov. 5, 2008, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley on July 30, 2009, in the Rose Garden.
Construction proceeds July 25 in the Rose Garden of the White House.
The White House Rose Garden is seen under construction July 23 in Washington.
