Trump’s latest outrageous threat is to gut and reconstruct the Kennedy Center — after adding his name to it.

President Donald Trump on Monday elaborated on his plan to close the Kennedy Center and rebuild it, saying that the steel would be "fully exposed" in
the process but insisted that, "I’m not ripping it down." When asked by a reporter at an Oval Office photo op whether he wanted to tear it down, Trump said that he will be “using the steel” and “some of the marble” for the renovation. "I’m not ripping it down. I’ll
be using the steel. So, we’re using the structure. We’re using some of the marble and some of the marble comes down, but when it’s opened, it’ll be brand new and really beautiful. It’ll be at the highest level,” he said. "The steel will all be checked out
because it’ll be fully exposed, he said. (See Trump
says steel to be ‘fully exposed’ in Kennedy Center rebuild but ‘not ripping it down’)

In 1955, recognizing America’s need to take its place on the world’s cultural stage, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established a commission for a new public auditorium in the nation’s capital.
Three years later, he signed the National Cultural Center Act (Pub. L. No. 85-874).  In signing this act, President Eisenhower confirmed the inherent value of the arts to all Americans and created what would ultimately become the John F. Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts—a true ‘artistic mecca,’ and one of the world’s most respected organizations. (https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/history/).

Two months after President Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the National Cultural Center (designed by Edward Durell
Stone) as a "living memorial" to Kennedy (P.L. 88-260). The Law authorized $23 million to help build what was now known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Fundraising continued at a swift pace—with much help coming from the Friends of the
Kennedy Center volunteers, who fanned out across the nation to attract private support—and nations around the world began donating funds, building materials, and artworks to assist in the project’s completion. In December 1964, President Lyndon Johnson turned
the first shovelful of earth at the Center’s construction site, using the same gold-plated spade that had been used in the groundbreaking ceremonies for both the Lincoln Memorial in 1914 and the Jefferson Memorial in 1938. (https://www.kennedy-center.org/our-story/history/).

The Kennedy center has been deemed eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, so any changes would, by law, have to go through the Section 106 process, which Trump will,
of course, ignore.

The Kennedy Center was designed by
Edward Durell Stone, the preeminent American Architect of the 1950s and 1960s. Stone grew up in my hometown of Fayetteville, AR and attended the University of Arkansas before going on to Harvard
and M.I.T.

Figure 1 – The Walker-Stone House in Fayetteville AR. Built by David Walker in 1845, the house was purchased by Stephen Stone, grandfather of Edward Durell Stone, in 1850

In the 1960s, Stone had two offices, the main one in New York and a smaller one in Palo Alto. Stone’s firm had designed the Stanford Medical Center that opened in 1959, and some members of the
design team liked California and decided to stay behind and set up a West Coast office.

Stone always had a special penchant for University of Arkansas architecture graduates and had several on his staff. It became known that he would hire any University of Arkansas architecture
graduate. So, when I graduated, I applied for a job in the Palo Alto Office, and in the summer of 1967, I was on the way to California.

Back then, architectural drawing had evolved little since the construction of the pyramids. It was all tee-squares and triangles with pencil on vellum.

I worked in the Palo Alto Office of Edward Durell Stone from the summer of 1967 until January of 1968, when I had to go an active Army duty. After two years in the Army, including a year in Vietnam,
I showed back up in Palo Alto and resumed my job with Edward Durell Stone.

Some of the projects I worked on included the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, the George W. Hubbard Hospital at the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, the Palo Alto Civic Center
and the San Jose Civic Center (never built).

After assigning me the task of detailing the Palo Alto Civic Center restrooms, my colleagues designated me as the “head” architect.

Figure 2 – Palo Alto Civic Center

I never worked on Kennedy Center, of course, but I take personally Trump’s threat to destroy the Edward Durell Stone design.

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