https://x.com/samstein/status/2038245959209996420
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/29/upshot/white-house-ballroom.html
Inside the East Wing, the ballroom itself is far larger than industry standards suggest is necessary for 1,000 guests (by that standard, it might fit 1,500 people). Mr. Baranes said the extra space was needed to accommodate TV cameras, journalists, security and ceremonial processions. But one result is that events with fewer than 1,000 people could feel empty.
The commercial kitchen and first lady’s office suite on the lower level are likewise supersized. And on the second-floor colonnade connecting the ballroom to the executive residence, a blank wall of faux windows will face the north (the direction from which most tourists get a glimpse of the White House). Behind them is a row of bathroom stalls.
Many criticisms of the building, Mr. Scharf said, fail to acknowledge that the White House has continually evolved since its beginning. “As our country’s developed, so too has the White House complex,” he said, adding that he would vote on the project this week after having read every one of the letters the commission received. “I see the ballroom project as a natural extension of that history.”
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The presidential version of a McMansion
I love that visualisation from the NYT article. What a fitting symbolism. Maybe it is just incompetence but that looks so much like a deliberate act. Block Congress from its view of the White House.
(source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/29/upshot/white-house-ballroom.html)
Are the windows/doors(?) at the lower front for real? That looks like the building version of the Homer car in from the Simpsons.
It’s a stargate data center. They swapped the architect to a guy who designs them early on. Sponsors are tech and military, they’re upgrading power to that part of DC, they’re doing extra consulting with the military and some other stuff I’m forgetting.
It’s a literal shitty cover up. For grok running on Oracle hardware.
This is like the first house new players make when enabling infinite money in The Sims and build a house from scratch.
Yes but where is the load bearing drywall?
Apparently that was never actually a thing. The house was ugly af, but not unsafe IIRC
I know it wasn’t a thing, I just love repeating it because it encapsulates the absurdity of the whole build perfectly though.
It is very modern American. We have been doing the McMansion thing for the last 40 years now. Why not add such an extension to the presidential house?
What do you mean, do the stairs just lead nowhere?
They lead to the top of the stairs. I don’t know why people call that “nowhere” when it’s right there.
When you build a submarine you dgaf what it looks like above the water
Where are the load-bearing drywall and insulated stairs going to go?
It’s cause it’s a cover for a new bunker and secure data center for having MAGA AI run the government once they’re / we’re all killed.
It won’t run it well, of course, but they’re too dumb to care about that.
It’s also a shiny bauble to dangle in front of the demented puppet who’s the face of this regime, in order to keep him distracted.
That’s a reference I haven’t heard in a very long time.
