When I worked at Treasury my office had a view of the East Wing of the White House -- so I have some rather views on the proposed Trump ball room ... 1/

And I am of course absolutely NOT qualified to be an architectural critic ... 2/

So the risk of being a NIMBY about my neighborhood of 10 years ago, the proposed ball room is just too dang big for the site (and I accept the premise that the WH needs more entertainment spaces) 3/

It risks overshadowing or competing with the main White House ("the residence") ... European kings used to do this all the time with their palaces, but the US hasn't, the current west and east wings are designed not to overshadow the actual White House 4/

And it looks totally out of proportion with the West Wing, which as any fan of the TV show or DC resident knows is actually incredibly small ... 5/

I was hoping for something more like a building that would be discretely tucked into the trees to the south of the current east wing, not something that looks a bit like "White house east ... " 6/

my one and only office NIMBY thread 7/7