Good. We don’t need missed deadlines and acting like a prima donna. Get the job done.
Jim McCreary isn’t a prima donna. He’s very, very Catholic, very, very conservative, and specializes in church and cathedral restorations with a strong commitment to restoring the classical esthetic. He is also meticulous and has a reputation for the highest standard of quality the client’s budget can support.
Deadlines slipping? I dunno; maybe so. But I would suspect that a big part of that problem is likely constant design changes as Trump keeps scaling up his vanity project.
I was surprised McCreary would take on the White House ballroom project in the first place because it is so out of scale to the rest of the White House complex. Trump is building a gold plated party room that will dwarf the White House itself. It will be used about six times a year, if it’s subdivided into office space to house another 3,000 White House political appointees in the next democrat administration. If Trump really has to have the biggest party room in ten zip codes, at least put the @*#& thing underground.
I don’t care if they put up a tent for big dinners at the White House. As far as I’m concerned, dinners that large are grotesque to begin with. The White House’s state rooms have traditionally been scaled and decorated to reflect the sturdy republican virtues of the early federal period. It’s not supposed to be a palace.
Of course, I’m just an old grump. I think the Supreme Court went off the rails when they took it out of the Capitol Building and built a Greek temple for the court across the street. The Justices used to meet under a good republican dome and mingle constantly with ordinary plebeians like senators, representatives and ordinary citizens who used to roam freely before the Capitol became a fortified place. The Justices don’t need a private dining room any more than Trump needs a big playroom. Let them eat bean soup in the cafeteria like everyone else, or bring a bag lunch.
The main point of the Supreme Court building, apart from fueling the Justices’ egos, was to house a rapidly ballooning staff. That was a mistake too; reduce the staff to two or three clerks per justice, make the Supremes write their own opinions, and a lot of the judicial overreach would come to an end. So would the ability of hopelessly senile Justices to hang on while the staff director calls the shots and a team covers for the drooling idiot who has mummified in place. That’s just me ... but it was a mistake to give free reign to delusions of grandeur on the bench. Just as it’s a mistake to try to turn the White House into Versailles.