A federal commission on Thursday recommended changes to the Trump administration’s plan to permanently fence Lafayette Square, the public park across the street from the White House, while pledging to support officials’ broader goal of protecting the president.
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Members of the Commission of Fine Arts, which is charged by Congress with vetting the design of major projects in the capital, said they agreed with the administration’s goal to boost security. But they disagreed with elements of the proposal, suggesting that the fences could be redesigned and recommending changes to the layout.
Rodney Mims Cook Jr., a Trump appointee who chairs the panel, called the proposal a “marvelous opportunity” to do away with the temporary, often unsightly barriers that have long been used to close Lafayette Square.
“I assure you, we’ll probably pass this,” Cook told the officials who presented the proposal. But he challenged a plan that would wrap the fences around several statues in the park. “Make it simpler for yourselves and for the nation,” Cook said.
The Washington Post reported last month that the Trump administration planned to permanently fence Lafayette Square, adding last week that the plan would extend to fencing Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest where it intersects with 15th and 17th streets Northwest. The park has long been popular with tourists, demonstrators and others drawn to the historic, highly visible site.
The proposal has been jointly overseen by the White House’s executive office of the president, the Secret Service and the National Park Service. Officials on Thursday said they appreciated the commission’s feedback and would present alternative designs in a future meeting.
Lafayette Square is closed for renovations overseen by President Donald Trump, which he has characterized as part of his efforts to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary. Black temporary fences have limited public access to the park for most of the year.
The Secret Service has said that it hopes to begin building the fences around Lafayette Square next year. Administration officials have previously said they are reassessing White House security after repeated threats to Trump, including a shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner in April.
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Officials on Thursday said they were trying to balance the public’s access to the White House grounds and their right to perform First Amendment activities with the need to enhance security. Richard Macauley, chief of the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service, told the commission about past demonstrations in the park that became dangerous and led to the hospitalization of some officers. Macauley also said temporary safety structures posed their own risk because they could be removed and used in dangerous ways.
“We have to make sure we protect our public, president and the White House,” Macauley said.
The administration’s proposal has been criticized by lawmakers, historic preservation groups and activists who say that the fences could make it harder for pedestrians to congregate in the historic space. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), D.C.’s nonvoting congressional representative, said Friday that she would introduce legislation to bar fencing at Lafayette Square, Pennsylvania Avenue and other parts of the White House campus.
“When considering the current proposals for Lafayette Park, let’s first ask if fencing is the right approach?” Charles Birnbaum, the head of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, wrote in comments submitted to the commission, suggesting that the barriers surrounding the Washington Monument could be a model.
The idea of a permanent fence around Lafayette Square was privately discussed during the first Trump administration, including when protesters thronged the park in the days after the death of George Floyd in May 2020, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal administration conversations. After protesters breached temporary fences around the White House complex, Trump was briefly taken to the White House’s underground bunker for security.
Commission members on Thursday suggested that some of the design ideas presented were unnecessarily ornate. James McCrery II, a member of the commission who served as the first architect for Trump’s planned White House ballroom before wrangling with the president over its size, suggested simply replicating the existing fence that goes around the White House grounds.
“Just let it be a fence,” McCrery said. “I think that the White House fence is a very good model.”
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