WASHINGTON — A chain-link fence around Lafayette Square, a crane looming over the White House, and tarpaulins obscuring fountains and statues have turned central Washington into what some visitors described as an “exclusion zone,” as President Donald Trump pushes a flurry of renovations and new construction ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
“It’s like we’re under occupation,” Norma Roth, a 62-year-old children’s book author from Tampa, told the Guardian. She was visiting the city and pointed to the sealed-off areas around the Ellipse and White House as a denial of free-speech values. “You can’t do that now.”
At the edge of Lafayette Square, a scuffed sign read: “We are making DC safe and beautiful.” Julie, a recent bride visiting from out of town with her husband Robert, was unconvinced. “The irony,” she said. “It’s neither safe, nor beautiful.”
The couple declined to provide a second name.
Rebecca Miller, executive director of the DC Preservation League, said the scale of simultaneous construction has disappointed out-of-town visitors. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip for some people, and to have it marred down with not being able to access certain sites can be really disappointing,” she said.
The most visible project is the demolition of the White House East Wing, ordered by Trump to make way for a large ballroom. Recently disclosed figures put the cost at $600 million, with half paid by taxpayers, contradicting Trump’s earlier claim that the price tag would be $400 million and met entirely by private donors.
The National Park Service has been restoring fountains across the city and has completed a $13.1 million restoration of the reflecting pool on the National Mall. Trump said the work would turn the pool “American-flag blue.” Upon completion, algae turned the water green.
MSI previously reported on the pool’s contentious repaint and subsequent algae problem in an article published June 5. Water returns to Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after contentious repaint.
Nearby, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, a neoclassical structure built in 1932, has its columns and gold statues covered by tarpaulin as renovations continue.
Another major project is the proposed 250-foot “Independence Arch” near Arlington National Cemetery, which critics have dubbed the “Arc de Trump.” The arch, estimated to cost $100 million, would be built on a large roundabout south of the Potomac River. About 600 letters of objection have been sent to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to defund the project, arguing that it did not seek congressional approval.
The White House contends that approval was already granted under a 1925 report allowing for two colonnades connected to the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Miller dismissed that claim. “What they’re proposing is not the columns that were authorized for that design,” she said. “The columns were on either side of the bridge, not on the traffic circle.”
Lafayette Square, a 7-acre site featuring statues of heroes of the American Revolution, is undergoing renovations under a $17 million contract awarded on a no-bid basis to Clark Construction, the same company building the White House ballroom.
Two projects unconnected to the administration — a memorial to veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War and the Potomac River tunnel project — add to the construction atmosphere.
The Great American State Fair, a 16-day exposition due to begin June 25, has cordoned off large areas of the National Mall. Angie Clark, a molecular biologist from Salt Lake City visiting for a scientific conference, told the Guardian she found the atmosphere “forbidding.”
“I’ve been here many times before, and I have never imagined that I would be so completely locked out of everything,” she said. “It feels exclusive, and not in a good way.”