The Daily Dot Rachel Hurley writes: An architect named Andrew Kerr just laid out why Trump’s White House ballroom project is basically bullshit. And his math checks out.
Here’s the deal. Trump’s now saying this 90,000 square foot ballroom will cost $300 million. Do the math on that - it’s $3,333 per square foot. For context, $1,000 per square foot is already astronomical for construction. We’re talking about a price tag that makes zero sense unless you’re building on the moon.
Kerr points out that if this thing actually follows classical proportions like the renderings suggest, you’re looking at a footprint about 380 feet by 235 feet. That’s longer than a football field and 1.5 times as wide.
For a ballroom that’s supposed to hold 999 people - which by the way, started at 650 people when this was first announced in July and magically grew to accommodate almost 1,000.
Let’s talk about what you actually need for 999 people according to Kerr. At a comfortable 20 square feet per person for a banquet - which is pretty generous - you need 20,000 square feet. Throw in another 10,000 for support functions and 10,000 for pre-function space, and you’re at 40,000 square feet.
That’s less than half of the supposed 90,000 square feet. So what’s the other 50,000 square feet for?
The renderings are also suspect. Kerr notes that the interior and exterior views don’t match. The White House is 70 feet tall to the roof. The interior renderings show a room about 100 by 200 feet with a 20-foot ceiling.
But the exterior renderings show a footprint 4.5 times larger than that. The math doesn’t work.
Plus - there are no actual architectural drawings. Just some pretty renderings that could have been whipped up by junior staff in a week or two. That’s it.
No construction documents, no engineered plans, no detailed specifications. For a $300 million project that’s supposedly breaking ground and already has demolition crews
tearing down the East Wing.
For context,
I can't find the original of this on the Daily Dot website
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However, there are any number of articles pointing out that the demolition process is unsafe - the existing building is full of asbestos, mold, and lead paint (all sorts of fun stuff) - in the "real" world the contractor would have been required to shroud the entire building and all the workers would be wearing protective gear.
"I would be fined out of existence if I demoed a building like this."
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