The White House wants to build an underground center to provide security screening for visitors

WASHINGTON– The White House wants to build an underground center to provide security screening for visitors, the latest step in the Trump administration’s plan to renovate the facility.

The plans, including renderings of the 33,000-square-foot (3,066-square-meter) center, were included in the preliminary agenda released Friday for the April meeting of a federal commission that approves construction on federal land in Washington.

The control center would be built under Sherman Park, located southeast of the White House and directly south of the Treasury building.

The park has long been where tourists and White House guests line up for security checks before passing through a series of caravan-like structures and walking to the East Wing entrance. President Donald Trump demolished the East Wing last fall to build a ballroom. Visitors are currently lining up near Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

The new screening center would have seven lanes to facilitate processing and reduce wait times. Construction could begin as early as August, according to plans, with the White House saying it wants the facility operational by July 2028, six months before Trump’s term ends.

The monument to Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in the center of Sherman Park will not be removed, according to plans for the project, which is a collaboration of the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Secret Service and the National Park Service, which manages the White House grounds.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction, planned to discuss the proposal at its April 2 meeting, according to the tentative agenda released Friday.

Also on the meeting’s agenda is a debate and final vote on the Republican president’s plans to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) building, including a grand ballroom, on the site of the East Wing.