Back in December 2025, I signed on to a letter from members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Historic Preservation Committee to Trump’s latest Ballroom architect, Shalom Baranes
(https://tombutt.com/from-email-tom-butt-e-forum-architects-call-on-shalom-baranes-associates-the-new-white-house-east/).
Yesterday, I received via email the threat letter copied below from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP:
I responded with the following email:
Benjamin Chew,
Thank you for your letter of January 5, 2026.
Your request that the authors, “cease and desist from any
further defamation,” apparently does not pertain to the letter of December 11, 2025, on which I allowed my name to be listed as an author.
Whether or not the contents of the December 11, 2025, constitute defamation is a matter of opinion, and, in any case, the content is an exercise of First Amendment rights.
What we do know is that the East Wing of the Capitol was demolished without any formal public input or process, that it was a highly controversial act opposed by a majority of
Americans, that construction preparatory to new construction is ongoing, and that your client, Shalom Baranes Associates (SBA), appears to be fully engaged in continuing the process begun by James McCrery.
You stated, “SBA was
not the only architectural firm considered by the client to replace the original architect.” If that is true, please provide corroborating evidence, such as a RFQ or RFP solicitation.
You stated, “It is the client,
not SBA, that owns the work product of the prior architect.” Typically, clients do not own the work product of architects, which is legally considered intellectual property and can be conveyed only by contract. Do you have any evidence you could share
to back your statement?
Regarding the AIA Code of Ethics, only the AIA has the jurisdiction to adjudicate a complaint based on allegations of a breach of the Code of Ethics.
The fact is that SBA is undertaking a highly controversial project that already has been and is the subject of litigation. If that is their choice, so be it, but under the circumstances,
they should be prepared for extreme scrutiny and criticism that goes along with the territory instead of retaining legal counsel to attack their critics.
On January 8, 2026, there will be a sham hearing before the National Capitol Planning Commission (NCPC) under the title, “East Wing Modernization Project.” The agenda item notes, “no action requested
or taken) Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NCPC Staff”.
The following written testimony was submitted to the NCPC:
Agenda No. 7A File No, 8733 East Wing Modernization Project
(Information presentation; no action requested or taken)
Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NCPC Staff
We, the Undersigned Members of the American Architectural Historic Preservation Community have attached the two letters that we have sent to John McCrery, AIA and Shalom Baranes,
FAIA, the first "ballroom" architect and then the second "ballroom" architect on the desecration of the East Wing of the People’s House, the White House. We object to the illegal and immoral destruction of the East Wing by President Trump. We do find it
amusing that you’ve entitled this subject as the "East Wing Modernization Project". You’ve totally destroyed the East Wing and now you call it a "Modernization Project". The following is a section of the letters that are attached:
1. The Trump administration has destroyed a significant portion of our country’s most significant treasure by demolishing the historic East Wing of the White House. This
was done with no public review and no consultation with bodies entrusted with the conservation and preservation of the District’s historic assets, namely the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and the US Commission of Fine Arts (CFA). Please note
language of the legislation which created the NCPC:
"SEC. 2, (a) The National Capital Planning Commission, herein- after called the ‘Commission’, is hereby created and designated as the central planning agency for the Federal and
District Governments to plan the appropriate and orderly development and redevelopment of the National Capital and the conservation of the important natural and historical features thereof. “
The NCPC was silent on the demolition of the historic “People’s House”. This was a dereliction of the duties entrusted to that body by the American public. It did so because the
majority of the members of the Commission were replaced by President Trump with his own loyalists and three of his existing White House staff. Ex-officio members include Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, and Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, both Cabinet
loyalists. Note that the NCPC hasn’t met since July and there is no planned meeting until January 8, 2026. The CFA members have all been fired by the president though there is apparently a meeting scheduled for January 15, 2026. (https://www.cfa.gov/)
Unless a condition of your commission to work on this project is the reconstruction of the East Wing in its original form along with the inclusion of any salvaged historical items
from the demolition, you are complicit in the approval of its demolition.
2. The plan to build a structure that is twice the size of the White House Central Mansion and immediately adjacent to it will forever diminish its significance as one of
the many important axial focal points in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s plan for the District. Symmetry drives the effectiveness of the District’s Plan. The White House itself respected and emphasized this symmetry with its own design. The size and scale of the
West and (and now demolished) East Wings respected the Central Mansion and did not disrupt its significance as the focal point in the north/south axis from the Washington Monument.
The scale and location of the proposed ballroom creates an extreme imbalance of the White House. It would reduce the Mansion to the “tail wagging the dog”. This is untenable and
should be stopped.
The argument that there is a “need” for an enormous national ballroom, if it must be so, can be met elsewhere just as other public needs over recent decades have been fulfilled
with museums and monuments that do not disrupt the District’s magnificent plan but enhance and strengthen it.
3. We believe that no architect, whether they be Assoc. AIA, AIA, FAIA, RA or any architect worldwide should engage in what we believe is an illegal sole source commission.
We believe it is improper and illegal to have the president award the most visible public building in the United States—the White House ballroom design through a sole source contract. The questionable action of soliciting donations from wealthy corporations
and individuals to finance this out of scale, inappropriate ballroom is quid pro quo for those who donate. And, as a fellow architect to engage in a commission with the Trump administration which has demoted our profession to a non-profession, we request that
you and any other architect refuse this commission. Let the hole that remains of what was once the historic East Wing of the “People’s House” remain throughout the next 3 years of this current administration.
Mark I. Baum, AIA
Brian Broadus, AIA
Terry H. Brooks, Assoc. AIA
George B. Bryant, Arch. (ret)
Jeffrey Bumb, AIA
Thomas Butt, FAIA
Samuel Duff Combs, AIA
Frank DiMella, AIA Emeritus
Lee Gamelsky, AIA
Robert Graham, AIA
Thomas Gray, AIA
Gene L. Greene, AIA
Jack Hillbrand, AIA
Ed Hodges, AIA
Deborah Kander, RA
Thomas Keeling, AIA
Randy Krieie, AIA
Robert C. Mack, FAIA
James Malanaphy, AIA
P. David Marshall, AIA
Mark Nardini, AIA
Nelson Breech Nave, AIA
Emily Reynolds, Assoc. AIA
Annie Sauser, Assoc. AIA
Lee Schwerin, AIA Emeritus
Paul Scoville, AIA Emeritus
Inda Sechzer, Assoc. AIA
Peter Shaffer, AIA
Robert Sotolongo, AIA
Emeritus
You can watch the NCPC meeting online at
https://www.ncpc.gov/live/.
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