A federal planning commission has unanimously approved a new underground White House visitor screening center, replacing temporary trailers the Secret Service says fall short of security needs.
The National Capital Planning Commission voted Thursday to greenlight final building plans for a White House Visitor Screening Facility off 15th Street in Sherman Park, with an entrance that takes guests below ground for security checks before they exit near the East Wing.
NBC News reported that the 12-member panel backed the project without dissent, including members appointed by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat. Construction is expected to start within the next month and wrap up at some point in 2028.
The vote closes a clear gap. Visitors now pass through temporary double-wide trailers and tents that the Secret Service has said do not meet its security standards. The new building is designed to fix that with permanent equipment and real indoor space.
Urban planner Lee Webb presented the final plans to the commission. The facility will feature a versatile open-floor-plan interior so the Secret Service can install permanent screening technology rather than temporary gear.
It will also handle significant indoor queuing for large events, with a stated occupancy of 700 people inside the screening space. That capacity matters for state visits, holiday tours, and other high-volume days when outdoor lines create both security and weather problems.
One presenter told the panel the exit will carry Corinthian columns meant to “align with the ballroom’s language,” tying the security building to the larger East Wing redesign already under way.
Commission chairman Mark Paoletta, a Trump appointee, spoke after the vote and framed the project as more than a checkpoint.
"I look forward to the beautiful building being built on the White House grounds."
Paul Ingrassia, representing the General Services Administration on the board and also a Trump appointee, cast the screening center as part of a broader refresh of the complex.
"an incredible part of this White House reimagining we’ve been seeing."
The unanimous tally matters because the commission is not a pure White House body. It includes Bowser’s appointees. Every member still signed off on the security upgrade.
The screening facility sits inside President Donald Trump’s wider renovation push on the White House grounds. That work already includes gold adornments in the Oval Office and a helipad on the White House lawn. Other proposals around Washington have included a “Triumphal Arch.”
The most visible companion project is a massive 90,000-square-foot ballroom under construction at the site of the former East Wing. The same commission approved those ballroom plans in April. The new visitor center’s exit design is meant to match that building’s architectural tone.
Taken together, the moves replace ad-hoc security setups and aging circulation patterns with permanent infrastructure sized for modern protective requirements and large public events.
The core case for the building is operational, not cosmetic. The Secret Service has said the current mix of trailers and tents falls short. An underground screening sequence with indoor queuing and fixed technology gives agents controlled space, better equipment, and less exposure to street-level variables off 15th Street.
Visitors will enter from Sherman Park, move through screening below grade, and come out by the East Wing. That path keeps the checkpoint off the main ceremonial approaches while still feeding guests into the complex in an orderly way.
No cost figure or square footage for the screening facility itself appeared in the reporting, and the commission’s submission materials were referenced without a full public dollar breakdown in the account of the meeting. What is clear is the timeline: work targeted to begin within a month of the Thursday vote, with completion eyed for 2028.
Federal design review can drag for years. A clean, unanimous NCPC vote removes a major procedural hurdle and lets construction planning move from drawings to the ground.
Hardened visitor screening is basic presidential security, not a luxury, and replacing trailers with a proper facility is the kind of overdue upgrade taxpayers should expect on the most protected grounds in the country.
