Eight organizations in the field of architecture, history and heritage preservation have taken a federal court action to block the Kennedy Center work project led by Trump and the board of directors, which he now chairs. The American president plans to close the establishment from July 4 for two years, in order to carry out a complete renovation. The suit does not target ordinary repairs but the lack of public control, the lack of authorization from Congress and the risk of irreversible transformation of the place.
The coalition brings together the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, the DC Preservation League, Docomomo US, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Society of Architectural Historians and The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Together, these organizations claim more than a million members and supporters. Such a coalition gives the case a weight rarely achieved in this area.
The heart of the matter lies in a specific fear. The announced renovation of the Kennedy Center building could in reality amount to a major overhaul, even affecting the steel structure of the building, as Trump has suggested on several occasions. The plaintiffs believe that such a project presupposes federal obligations of consultation, heritage examination and authorization. However, these obligations have not been respected. However, the site is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The Kennedy Center in Washington DC
The criticism is all the more justified as the administration has already shown, in other files, a propensity to minimize the real scale of interventions before shifting them towards much more important operations. The associations thus invoke the demolition of the East wing of the White House as a warning signal.
The Kennedy Center is no ordinary venue. It is both a prestigious modernist architecture, a cultural landscape designed to dialogue with the great monuments of Washington and a memorial dedicated to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It requires maintenance work and its economic and artistic model is under pressure. But the plaintiffs argue that modernization cannot be invoked to circumvent the rules of preservation or Congress’s role in a federal memorial.
