WASHINGTON — The White House wants to build an underground center to provide security screening for visitors, the latest step in the Trump administration’s plan to overhaul the grounds.
Plans, including renderings of the 33,000-square-foot (3,066-square-meter) center, were included in the preliminary agenda released on Friday for the April meeting of a federal commission that approves construction on federal land in Washington.
The screening facility would be built beneath Sherman Park, which is located southeast of the White House and directly south of the Treasury building.
The park had for a long time been the place where White House tourists and guests lined up for security checks before they cleared a series of trailer-type structures and walked to the East Wing entrance. President Donald Trump tore down the East Wing last fall to build a ballroom. Visitors currently line up near Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
The new screening facility would have seven lanes to ease processing and reduce wait times. Construction could begin as early as August, according to the plans, as the White House said it wants the facility operating by July 2028, six months before Trump’s term ends.
The monument of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in the center of Sherman Park would not be removed, according to plans for the project, which is a collaboration of the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Secret Service and the National Park Service, which manages the White House grounds.
The National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction, planned to discuss the proposal at its April 2 meeting, according to the tentative agenda circulated Friday.
Also on that meeting agenda is a debate and a final vote on plans by the Republican president to build a 90,000-square-foot (8,360-square-meter) building, including a large ballroom, where the East Wing stood.
