White House given a timely face lift
As the US president moved out, the packers and renovators moved in.
No sooner was Air Force One on its way to New Jersey at the start of Donald Trump’s 17day working vacation than the Oval Office was cleared of furniture and the work of renovating the White House could begin.
Officials relocated on Friday to an office block next door and even the famous Resolute Desk was carried out.
Officially, the US$3.4 million (Dh12.5m) West Wing renovations are part of a longplanned upgrade of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. But the fraying state of the two-centuries-old building has been the butt of jokes for years.
Even Mr Trump was caught complaining recently about its shabbiness to golfers at his New Jersey course.
“The White House is a real dump,” he told them, according to Golf.com, although Mr Trump denies saying any such thing. A White House official later said that although the president was impressed with the private quarters, he has commented frequently on the poor condition of the West Wing.
When former president Barack Obama was filmed during an interview swatting a fly, even The New York Times, normally sombre, could not resist a jokey headline: What has 132 rooms and flies?
Things have become even worse in the past fortnight. Heavy downpours in Washington caused leaks in the ceiling in one of the press areas, forcing reporters to put rubbish bins down to catch drops.
Reed Galen, who worked for former president George W Bush during his first term, said such stories were nothing new. Maintenance staff were “running to stand still” most of the time.
“I didn’t see rain leaking through the ceiling, but at the same time it doesn’t particularly surprise me,” he said.
The White House was built in the 1790s, burnt down by the British in 1814 and reconstructed in 1817. The West Wing was added by Theodore Roosevelt’s administration in 1902.
Today it houses the Oval Office, cabinet room and situation room as well as a press office and space for journalists who work in the White House.
The result is a crowded warren of corridors, offices and cubby holes where the constant buzz of political life means there is rarely any downtime to make repairs.
“In a building that is not only the president’s home but also an office building, a museum. It plays a lot of roles and in that capacity needs a lot of work,” Mr Galen said.
“I don’t know how many thousands of visitors go through for East Wing tours. I don’t know how many visitors walk in and out for meetings every day but there’s a lot of foot traffic. A lot of wear and tear.”
The latest renovations will include repairing the ceiling leaks, a power wash and rebuilding staircases.
The priority is to replace a 27-year-old system that controls the air temperature in the West Wing, which is “well past its life cycle and will fail in the near future without intervention”, the maintenance team said.
Lindsay Walters, the deputy White House press secretary, said the system’s 24/7, 365-day use meant engineers estimated it was the equivalent of one installed 81 years ago.
“We all need to be relocated out of the West Wing because of the renovations, which should have taken place before.”