West Wing

West Wing

The West Wing is the Official offices of the President of the United States. It is part of the White House Complex located west of it in which the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, and the Situation Room are located and also the famous Roosevelt Room. Besides serving as the day-to-day office of the President of the United States, it includes offices for senior members of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and their support staff. The West Wing is located directly west of the Executive Residence, largely concealed from view by trees, because its height is lower than the main structure.

History

Before construction of the West Wing, presidential staff worked on the second floor of what is now the Executive Residence. However, when Theodore Roosevelt became President, he came to the White House with his wife and his six children. In 1902, finding that the existing offices in the Mansion were insufficient to accommodate his family as well as his staff, he had the West Wing constructed by the New York architects McKim, Mead & White. The West Wing was originally constructed as a temporary office structure, built atop the site of the greenhouse and stables. In the original design, the President's office was located in the center of the West Wing, where the Roosevelt Room now exists. In 1909, William Howard Taft had the interior remodeled, creating the Oval Office, reminiscent of the oval rooms in the Residence.

On December 24, 1929, under President Hoover, the West Wing was significantly damaged by an electrical fire. In 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt became President, he undertook the third and final major reorganization with a new Oval Office being constructed in the southeast corner of the West Wing. The new office's location also gave presidents greater privacy, allowing them to slip back and forth between the main White House and the West Wing without being in full view of West Wing staff. During the period, the March of Dimes constructed a swimming pool so that FDR could exercise, as therapy for his disability. Richard Nixon had the swimming pool covered over to create the Press Briefing Room, where the White House Press Secretary gives hourly briefings.

Nixon also renamed the room previously called by Franklin Roosevelt the "Fish Room" (where he kept aquariums, and where John F. Kennedy displayed trophy fish) in honor of the two Presidents Roosevelt: Theodore, who first built the West Wing, and Franklin, who built the current Oval Office. By tradition, a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt hangs over the mantel of the Roosevelt Room during the administration of a president from the Democratic Party and a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt hangs during the administration of a Republican president (although President Clinton chose to retain the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt above the mantel). In the past, the portrait not hanging over the mantel hung on the opposite wall. However, during the first term of President George W. Bush's administration, an audio-visual cabinet was placed on the opposite wall providing secure audio and visual conference capabilities across the hall from the Oval Office.

As presidential staffs grew substantially in the latter half of the 20th century, the West Wing generally came to be seen as too small for its modern governmental functions. Today, some members of the President's staff are located in the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building —originally the State, War, and Navy Building, which housed those departments.

Bush administration occupants

According to an article [cite news | last=Stevens | first=Doug | url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/06/06/CU2005060601310.html | title=Inside the Real West Wing | publisher=The Washington Post | date=2005-06-06 (updated August 2006) | accessdate=2007-08-17] in "The Washington Post", first floor occupants of the West Wing during George W. Bush's second term include:
*Dick Cheney, Vice President
*Joshua B. Bolten, Assistant to the President and White House Chief of Staff
*Joe Hagin, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff
*Stephen Hadley, National Security Advisor
*Jared Weinstein, Special Assistant to the President and Personal Aide
*Karen Keller, Special Assistant to the President and Personal Secretary
*Dana Perino, Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary
*Emily Lawrimore, Assistant Press Secretary
*Josh Deckard, Assistant Press Secretary

Second floor occupants include:
*Ed Gillespie, Counselor to the President
*Fred Fielding, Counsel to the President
*Kevin Sullivan, Assistant to the President for Communications
*Candi Wolff, Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs
*Liza Wright, Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel
*Doug Badger, Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs
*Keith Hennessey, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director, National Economic Council
*Chuck Blahous, Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director, National Economic Council
*Bill McGurn, Assistant to the President for Speech writing
*Jess Sharp, Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy

Bolten joined the West Wing after the article was published, replacing Andrew Card on 14 April 2006.Former occupants of the West Wing during Bush's administration include former Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Claude Allen, former Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Kristen Silverberg and former Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel Dina Powell.

Depiction in "The West Wing" TV Series

In 1999, a popular and critically acclaimed television show called "The West Wing" brought greater public attention to the workings of the Presidential staff, as well as to the location of those workings in the West Wing. The show followed the working lives of a fictional American President and his staff. When asked whether the show accurately captured the working environment in 2003, Press Secretary Scott McClellan commented that the show portrayed more foot traffic and larger rooms than in the real wing. [cite web | title=Scott McClellan Hosts Ask the White House | url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/20031118.html | work=The White House | accessdate=2007-08-17]

References

External links

coord|38.897370|-77.037425|region:US-VA_type:landmark_scale:2000_source:Wikimapia|display=title * [http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/west-wing.htm White House Museum: West Wing] , with floorplan and historical images


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