"The East Wing of the White House is gone, and it went quickly. In July, President Donald Trump announced that a ballroom would rise somewhere on the White House grounds and "be near it but not touching it." The plans, or at least the public ones, are vague and incomplete; nothing's been submitted to, let alone approved by, the National Capital Planning Commission, which in normal times would judge them. Yesterday, though, demolition crews took most of the wing down, leaving nothing but an outline,"
"What Trump employed here is a classic developer tactic: anticipatory demolition. Once you buy a building that's in the way of your plan ("you" being the developer here), you knock it down right away, lest the neighbors rally behind saving it. Why wait for the activists holding protest signs or the negative press (including, maybe, on this site) demanding, "Don't tear that down"? A headache!"
The White House East Wing was largely demolished quickly despite no finalized, publicly filed plans for the replacement ballroom. No submission had been made to the National Capital Planning Commission for normal review before demolition began. The demolition left only an outline of the original structure and creates an empty site that could remain vacant for months or years while replacement plans are finalized. The action matches a developer tactic called anticipatory demolition, intended to avoid community resistance or landmarking. A prior example involved Trump Tower replacing the 1929 Bonwit Teller store after preservation complications and costs emerged.
Read at Curbed
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