Inside the White House - Part Two

East Garden Room This room, at the west end of the East Terrace, is the intersection between the Residence and the East Wing. Double doors in the northwest corner provide entry into the Ground Floor Corridor within the original walls of the White House. The glazed south wall is an extension of the East Colonnade facade, with a door opening into the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. Coming down the colonnade, guests first see an enormous bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln by Gutzon Borglum in a niche in the west wall, to the right of which hang display panels - historic photographs most of the year, official Christmas cards during the holiday season. Large portraits of four former presidents hang on the other two walls. The West Wing The West Wing houses the President's office (the Oval Office) and offices of his senior staff, with room for about 50 employees. It also includes the Cabinet Room, where the president conducts business meetings and where the Cabinet meets, as well as the White House Situation Room, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, and Roosevelt Room.In 2007, work was completed on renovations of the press briefing room, adding fiber optic cables and LCD screens for the display of charts and graphs. The makeover took 11 months and cost $8 million, of which news outlets paid $2 million.Some members of the President's staff are located in the adjacent Old Executive Office Building, formerly the State War and Navy building, and sometimes known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.This portion of the building was used as the setting for the popular television show The West Wing.In 1934, Franklin Roosevelt had a second floor constructed and moved the Oval Office to the southeast corner for better light and privacy. He also had a swimming pool and gymnasium constructed in the gallery to allow him to exercise regularly.Many presidents renovate the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. Richard Nixon converted the pool and gym to a briefing room and offices for the press. He also dedicated the conference room to Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. In 2006, the George W Bush renovated the press areas and enlarged and updated the Situation Room. Ground Floor of the West WingThe ground floor of the West Wing houses offices for the president's staff and security, as well as the cafeteria and the White House Situation Room, made up of the Watch Center, a small conference room, and Video Teleconferencing Room. The old structure (TR/Taft Executive Office Building) had only a rudimentary basement. The expansion of 1934 included not only a second floor but a large basement. Time magazine said at the opening:President Roosevelt was beaming with happy expectation. So were the 120 members of the ... White House office force. They were delighted to have a wholly air-conditioned building to save them from the summer's heat; delighted with the roomy basement offices extending out under the lawn and surrounding a little sunken court with a fountain in its centre; delighted that in place of the beautiful but useless McKim dome over the old waiting room, their palace had got a roomy penthouse where more secretaries and clerks, including those of Mrs. Roosevelt, can do more work more easily. The West Wing ground floor once contained the White House Bowling Alley—two lanes installed with private donations during the Truman administration in 1947 but removed in 1955. In 1969, one lane was installed by friends of President Nixon, who was an avid bowler, in the basement of the Residence.First Floor of the West WingThe first floor of the West Wing includes the Oval Office and offices of the president's highest staff (and their secretaries) as well as meeting rooms and White House Press Corps offices.It also contains facilities for the press corps—offices and a briefing room. Space has nearly always been cramped, however, and the once-grand Lobby has been reduced to allow more offices.Second Floor of the West WingThe second floor of the West Wing houses offices for the president's staff, including various assistants, speechwriters, and the White House counsel (the president's lawyer). The second floor was added to the West Wing in 1934 by Franklin Roosevelt, expansion of the federal government to manage New Deal programs and later to fight World War 2 made it necessary to have more senior staff members close by.Along with the West Wing, Theodore Roosevelt also built an early, one-story East Wing as a formal guest entrance. The present East Wing was added to the White House in 1942 in part to balance the enlarged West Wing and in part to cover the construction of an underground air-raid bunker now known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Among its uses, the East Wing has sometimes housed the offices and staff of the first lady and provides a covered entrance to the White House that allows guests to easily flow through the mansion for large social events.President Jefferson added colonnaded terraces to the east and west sides of the White House, but no actual wings. Under Jackson in 1834, running water was piped in from a spring and pumped up into the east terrace in metal tubes. These ran through the walls and protruded into the rooms, controlled by spigots. Initially, the water was for washing items, but soon the first bathing rooms were created, in the ground-level east colonnade. Van Buren had shower baths installed here. The East Terrace was removed in 1866. For many years, a greenhouse occupied the east grounds of the White House. First Floor of the East WingThe first floor of the East Wing contains the lobby, which welcomes public visitors to the White House, the east Garden Room, the White House Family Theater, and the visitors entrance to the ground floor of the White House.Second Floor of the East WingThe second floor of the East Wing houses support staff for the White House, including the offices of the first lady, the social secretary, the White House calligrapher, and other formal correspondence staff.