A near-finished renovation of the White House’s West Wing brought in new art and furniture, including “a lot more eagles,” an interior designer told a group of reporters during a tour Wednesday.
A dozen 19th century engraved chairs with claw feet are scattered throughout rooms and halls in the reoccupied office wing, and perched in the large Roosevelt Room are two eagle carvings that are more than three feet tall.
“In terms of eagles as a motif, you’re going to start seeing a lot more eagles throughout the West Wing— it’s a very patriotic symbol,” said designer John Botello, a preservation specialist who worked on the project.
The large carved eagles are certain to be photographed often inside the boardroom where they will face President Trump and a painting of Theodore Roosevelt during meetings. The pair was purchased recently by George Kanellos, historic preservation officer at the White House.
“About once a day I asked in prayer, entreating the Almighty that I would be led to something that would be noble for this space,” Kanellos said, describing a dramatic trip to Hudson House Galleries in Funkstown, in western Maryland, inspired by a road sign seen through driving rain.
(AP Photos)
Kanellos told the reporters the eagles, replacing chairs atop pedestals on either side of a cabinet, may have a connection to Gen. Douglas MacArthur that he will continue to research.
Gregory Sullivan, the antiques shop’s owner, told the Washington Examiner he purchased the eagles in the 1990s from a warehouse near Manila in the Philippines. He believes they were carved sometime between the 1920s and the ‘40s when the island chain was a U.S. possession.
When Sullivan sold the eagles they were a dark-colored wood. They now are painted gold.
“They are significant, iconic forms for the American people, so, therefore, they were most probably carved for, by, or at the request of U.S. soldiers or the American government,” he said, estimating they are from the MacArthur era.
“He was quite a notable figure and highly revered and thank God he wasn’t a statue in Charlottesville,” the art dealer said of MacArthur, who retook the Philippines during World War II and is often praised by President Trump.
Sullivan said he also sold Kanellos a foot-tall iron eagle that could be placed outdoors, though reporters did not see that item on Wednesday.
Sullivan said he’s been in business more than 50 years and that his shop previously sold items to the Kennedy and Johnson White Houses. He said his shop has a few more large carved eagles if someone wants one similar to the Roosevelt Room fixtures.
Other new items of furniture in the West Wing include a corridor china cabinet that will feature foreign gifts. The wing also has 6,700 square yards of new carpeting said to have a design inspired by the Rose Garden.
The only significant alteration to the Oval Office, tour guides said, was a change of wallpaper, updated with a classic design selected by President Trump.
One White House official called it “temporary wallpaper,” saying it may or may not be switched after Trump selects a permanent rug design.
“The Obama wallpaper was very damaged, there was a lot of stains on it,” the official explained, clarifying later this was from normal wear and tear, as the presidential workspace “is not like my dining room, where it’s only used on Thanksgiving.”
Alan Zawatsky, director of the White House Service Center within the General Services Administration, said “everything we used was made in America,” and that “several” vendor companies are owned by Native Americans.
A GSA spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an inquiry seeking a full list of expenses and vendors, but the repairs were estimated at $1.965 million for a new HVAC system, $1.17 million for new carpeting, and $275,000 for fresh paint.
As reporters were shown around, workers were digging up the north lawn as workers to the south evened sand under slate blocks near the Rose Garden. Levels and a sander sat atop newly cut Indiana limestone on the South Portico stairway, replacing aging Missouri stone.
Indoors, subtleties of artistic design and history informed details as minor as china patterns and drapes. But one item was not updated, despite need: A large photo of President Trump’s inauguration, which still bears the incorrect date inside a primary entrance to the West Wing.
“Swearing-in ceremony of President Donald J. Trump – January 21st, 2017,” text beneath the prominently placed photograph says. His inauguration was on Jan. 20.
Botello said the photo likely will be replaced eventually, but that it wasn’t a priority.
