Kennedy Center board to vote on closing for renovations

By Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – The board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is expected to vote on Monday on a temporary closure to carry out President Donald Trump’s planned renovation of the building, according to two people familiar with the agenda. 

The meeting will take place in the East Room of the White House and the renovation plans are expected to be approved, as the president has been pushing for the changes and the voting members of the board were appointed by him.

The board last December approved changing the name of the building, which Congress dedicated as a living memorial to Kennedy after his assassination in 1963, to the Trump-Kennedy Center.

Trump previously announced the center would close for two years of renovation, starting after the July 4 Independence Day.

“The temporary closure will produce a much faster and higher quality result,” Trump said in announcing the closure on February 1.

Some Democrats who hold non-voting positions on the board, including U.S. Representative Joyce Beatty, have challenged the president’s plans. A federal judge last week ordered the administration to allow the congresswoman to attend Monday’s meeting and be given access to the renovation plans.

“No president has the authority to shut Congress out of the governance of the Kennedy Center, much less unilaterally rename or demolish it,” Beatty said in a statement after the court order. 

The extent of the expected changes are unclear, but Trump has called the building “run down” and dangerous. On Friday, he shared renderings of the center’s exterior that showed a look similar to the current white marble facade and white columns ringing the building that were recently painted over.

    The president has not released interior design renderings, but in December he suggested adding white marble arm rests to the center’s seating. He has also said the carpet, walls, chandeliers, stages and ventilation will be changed. 

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell)