Trump administration allows Kennedy Center demolition without renovations
The administration of US President Donald Trump warned in a court filing that Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts could be demolished if it does not undergo $250 million in renovations. The Guardian reports.
The president’s lawyers said that without reconstruction, the complex would fall further into disrepair and become an unsafe building that would have to be demolished. The filing states that it would then be necessary to determine what should be built on the site. A large open-air amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River is mentioned among the possible options.
Dispute over the name
The statement came amid a legal dispute over attempts to add Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center’s name and signage. In May, federal judge Christopher Cooper ruled that only Congress can change the institution’s name. The judge stressed that the center must be named in honor of President John Kennedy, whom it commemorates.
On August 13, the center’s board, most of whose members were appointed by Trump, voted 20 to three for a new inscription on the building: “The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J Trump.” The area around the complex was also to be named “President Donald J Trump Plaza.”
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The administration maintains that this inscription does not violate the court ban because the institution’s official name formally remains unchanged. In the lawyers’ view, the words “Restored and Renovated by” merely indicate Trump’s role in restoring the complex, similar to references to major donors at other cultural institutions.
Joyce Beatty’s lawsuit
The new filing was a response to a request by Democratic Ohio Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, who serves on the Kennedy Center board ex officio, to prevent Trump’s name from returning to the facade. Beatty previously filed a lawsuit after the inscription “The Donald J Trump and John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” appeared on the white marble facade.
In June, Trump’s name was removed from the facade pursuant to a court ruling, and the relevant section of the building was covered with a large canvas. In July, an appeals court rejected the administration’s request to keep the inscription in place while the ruling was appealed. A hearing on Beatty’s request for an injunction was scheduled for Thursday in federal court in Washington.
Congress established the Kennedy Center as a memorial to John Kennedy, and it opened in 1971. The approximately 30-meter-high complex includes a concert hall, an opera house, and a theater.
