A group of eight preservation societies filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president’s plans for a two-year renovation of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Last week, the Kennedy Center’s board approved to close the institution for two years, beginning after its July 4 celebrations for the US’s 250th anniversary, so that it could undergo renovations. The extent of the planned renovations remains unclear. President Donald Trump said in February the Kennedy Center is “tired, broken, and dilapidated.”
In their suit, which was first reported on by the Washington Post, the plaintiffs describe the Kennedy Center as “a defining landmark within the monumental core of the Nation’s capital” and that it’s modernist design and role as a venue for the performing arts “form an irreplaceable legacy of history, architecture, and civic purpose.”
Now, “[t]hat legacy is in peril,” the suit adds, citing Trump’s plan to close the Kennedy Center within four months “undergo major structural work—up to and including demolition and reconstruction.”
The suit asks the court to intervene in the closure and renovation until the Kennedy Center board submits to a review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts and National Historic Preservation Act and under the National Environmental Policy Act, as well as receive Congressional approval for any renovations.
The suit adds, “The intent of the Board of Trustees and Mr. Trump is clear: To fundamentally alter this iconic property without complying with bedrock federal historic preservation and environmental laws, and without securing the necessary congressional authorization. And the harm is imminent, as the Board of Trustees and Mr. Trump admit they have already commenced preliminary construction work.”
The plaintiffs of this latest lawsuit, which was filed in US District for the District of Columbia, are the DC Preservation League, the National Trust for the Historic Preservation, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, Docomomo, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation.
The suit’s initial defendants’ list goes beyond the Kennedy Center board and Trump, the chair of the board, to include the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Department of the Interior and its Secretary Douglas J. Burgum. The Trump administration has yet to comment on the suit.
Renamed in 1964 as a “living memorial” to John F. Kennedy, the Kennedy Center has been a target of Trump’s since the beginning of his second administration. He has dismissed 18 board members and installed a new board that elected him as chair. Trump then sought to rename the Kennedy Center to include his name in its official title.
The lawsuit also argues that Trump’s addition of his name to the building’s facade and his order to paint its iconic gold columns white, both of which were done without submitting to review as required by federal law, “reflect a deliberate pattern of advancing physical changes” that is intentional. In this instance, federal law requires to perform their “nondiscretionary duty to deny permits, licenses, and approvals unless and until the agency has completed a specific consultation process with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation,” per the suit.
Rebecca Miller, executive director of plaintiff DC Preservation League, told the Post that the “Kennedy Center is not a personal project of any president. It is a national cultural monument built to honor John F. Kennedy and to serve the American people. Federal law requires transparency, expert review and public participation before it can be fundamentally altered.”
