A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump is on a remodeling spree and it's not just a White House ballroom project. NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith tells us Trump has eyes on the West Wing, too.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Back in August, President Trump went for a little walk, as he called it, on the roof of the White House.
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UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST: Mr. President, what are you doing up there?
KEITH: When asked what he was building, Trump replied...
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It goes with the ballroom, which is on the other side.
KEITH: ...It goes with the ballroom, which is on the other side. Well, after last week's presentation by ballroom project architect Shalom Baranes to the National Capital Planning Commission, it all makes more sense. The president's massive planned ballroom is designed to connect to the White House East Room via a two-story colonnade. But the West Wing colonnade on the other side is currently only a single story. Baranes said, architecturally, it would be best if the two sides of the residence were in balance.
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SHALOM BARANES: The White House is therefore considering the idea of a modest one-story addition to the West Wing colonnade, which would serve to restore a sense of symmetry around the original central pavilion.
KEITH: In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said he was calling it the Upper West Wing. And it could hold office space for presidential aides or perhaps the first lady. He told the Times it was currently being designed, and if he liked what he saw, he would move forward. Baranes downplayed the current state of planning during his presentation to the commission.
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BARANES: We have not looked at that at all yet but hope to do so in the future.
KEITH: One complicating factor, though, is what's housed underneath the portion of the West Wing where Trump is talking about adding a second floor, the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room and workspace used by hundreds of journalists in the White House press corps. A major renovation like that could cause significant disruption.
Tamara Keith, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF BERRY WEIGHT'S "YETI'S LAMENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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