Trump says he’s not planning to rip down Kennedy Center
As President Trump preparing to close the Kennedy Center for renovations, sources told CBS News there have been no discussions about demolishing or gutting the building.
The president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that he plans to create a “brand new” Kennedy Center using the 55-year-old arts institution existing steel and some of its marble, sparking speculation about the scale of the renovation project planned over two years.
Asked Monday by CBS News if he planned to demolish the building, he said: “I won’t demolish it. I’ll use the steel, so we’re using the structure.”
He said his changes would cost about $200 million.
Sources familiar with the matter told CBS News that Mr. Trump has so far not requested estimates for the destruction of the building.
Planned changes, which will begin this summer, include a new roof and replacement of some marble and grout. Renovations will also be needed in the promenade portion of the building that extends across the road toward the river, where existing steel will be reused, one of the sources said. One of the two independent stages in the grand foyer will likely be removed and possibly replaced with a bar.
But the basic layout of the building, with the three theaters, the Hall of Nations and the Hall of States, will remain unchanged, the sources told CBS News.
In the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said that as a homebuilder, “you want to sit with something for a little while before you decide what you want to do.” He added: “You know, we sat on it” and discovered “it’s dilapidated” and needs to be repaired.
A White House official said the administration does not need congressional approval to temporarily close the building for renovation.
Congress appropriated about $250 million for building renovations last year.
Mr. Trump announced Sunday evening that the Kennedy Center would be closed for construction for about two years, in an effort to address what Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell called “decades of deferred maintenance and repairs.” Mr. Trump said closing the center “will produce a much faster and better result” than enduring partial closures while the building is renovated.
Since returning to the White House last year, Mr. Trump has sought to put his mark on Washington-area monuments. The real estate developer turned president owned the East Wing of the White House demolished last fall to make way for a planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. And he ordered a triumphal arch across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., declaring this weekend that he would like the ark to be “the largest” in the world.
Mr. Trump and his allies have also made sweeping changes to the Kennedy Center. A few weeks after his inauguration, the president replaced some members of the center’s board of directors and became president. Last month, the council I voted to change the center’s name is the Trump-Kennedy Center, and Mr. Trump’s name was added to the building’s facade, drawing criticism from Democrats who said the name could not be changed without an act of Congress.
The center has also faced a series of high-profile cancellations. Broadway hit ‘Hamilton’ pulled out of scheduled performances, composer Philip Glass canceled a premiere of his new symphony and several other music artists canceled their concertsciting in many cases either the name change or broader concerns about the center’s political direction.
Grenell criticized the artists who canceled their appearances, saying they had been “booked by previous far-left leaders” and accusing them of politicizing the center.
