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President Donald Trump has already spent months trying to remake the White House in his own image. He’s gilded the Oval Office. He’s paved the Rose Garden. He’s added two gargantuan flag poles. He’s hung a bunch of new pictures of himself.
Now, he is about to embark on his biggest project yet: tearing down the East Wing to build an enormous ballroom that looks eerily similar to the one he uses at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed new details Thursday about the $200 million project, which is expected to break ground in September and wrap up in time for Trump to use it before the end of his term. Funding purportedly will be provided by Trump and other unnamed individuals.
“I’ll do it and probably have some donors or whatever,” the president said at a signing ceremony Thursday.
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“There’s never been a president that was good at ballrooms — really good,” he said.
The event space is expected to boast a 650-person capacity and blend architecturally into the rest of the People’s House, although its footprint will be quite large: The space will add 90,000 square feet. The main residence is only 55,000 square feet.
Trump has spoken about his desire for a bigger White House event space for some time, as large formal gatherings occasionally spill onto the lawn to be held under lavish tents.
Trump has always hated tents. On Thursday, he explained why: “People schlopping down to the tent — it’s not a pretty sight. The women with their lovely evening gowns, and their hair all done, and they’re a mess by the time they get [there].”
Trump said it was important that the addition “pay total respect to the existing building.”
The East Wing was added in 1902 during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and expanded downward to include a bunker during World War II — the specifications of which are not publicly known. Significant gut renovations were made to the entire White House complex in the late 1940s and early 1950s due to structural concerns.
Leavitt emphasized at a press conference that the East Wing has been renovated in the past.
In response to a question on how much of the East Wing would be torn down, Leavitt responded: “The East Wing is going to be modernized. The necessary construction will take place.”
“And for those who are housed in the East Wing, including the office of the first lady, the White House Military Office, the White House Visitors Office, those offices will be temporarily relocated while the East Wing is being modernized,” she said.
Trump has chosen Washington-based McCrery Architects to lead the project, along with Clark Construction and AECOM to provide engineering services.
The White House said that updates would be posted to its website.
Take a look at more of the renderings below:
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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