WASHINGTON, DC | Development News

[Busy Bee]

What bothers me most about this spectacle isn't so much that a new special function space is being built. Yes it's gross that it could very well turn out gawdy and he will be forever remembered as the one who did it and I have no doubt there will be some sort of gold plated shrine in the new ballroom giving der fuhrer all the credit, but like the courtyard replacing the Rose Garden lawn, you can make reasonable arguments for why an outdoor space used for what it's used for should sensibly be a hard decorative surface and not soggy grass. Much like you can make a sensible defense of the real need to have additional special function space at the White House and an underutilized wing seems like a logical candidate to be upgraded.

No, it's not those things. It's the bull-in-a-china-shop way they are going about it. A person with a modicum of respect and reverence for not only his office, but for the deep symbolism and historic meaning for the White House and grounds have to the American people, would have made an effort to make the construction work visually look less barbarous. My first thought as I looked at historic divided light windows being smashed by an end loader was why they hell weren't they carefully deconstructing this structure? They are tearing it down without a shred of sensitivity that this building isn't an old McDonalds or some public housing that's at the end of it's life, it's the — White House. The bare minimum should have seen a black shroud and scaffolding surrounding the structure and workers methodically removing high quality materials of historic usefulness like the slate roof and windows that I'm sure many a museum would have love to have. It should have been quiet and not look and sound like that crew that ripped apart that old house in The Money Pit. Dump could have even had the netting have graphics that announced what "amazing improvement to the White House" was coming with the demolition. You would think that some — that's spent his entire life doing self-promotion and real estate marketing would understand that smartly promoting and handling the work like that maybe would have alleviated some of the horror that the scene has conveyed. It's a metaphor galore.