WASHINGTON — The White House Scenario Room, the nerve heart for a president’s most delicate nationwide safety conferences, has a brand new look and new capabilities after a yearlong renovation.
Regardless of its title, the Scenario Room isn’t a single room however as a substitute a sprawling 5,500-square-foot advanced with quite a few assembly spots, all of which have been gutted and refurbished at a price of $50 million. A smaller room, the place former President Barack Obama and prime officers monitored the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, was preserved in its entirety and despatched to the Obama library.
Marc Gustafson, the White House director for the Scenario Room, advised reporters throughout a tour of the power Thursday that the renovation was wanted due to “heavy put on and tear” during the last 16 years, because the final massive face-lift in 2007.
President Joe Biden attends a ribbon chopping for the renovated White House Scenario Room on Tuesday.Adam Schultz / White House
President Joe Biden noticed the completed undertaking this week and “cherished it,” Gustafson stated, including that Biden has already had an intelligence briefing there. The Scenario Room needs to be absolutely operational for calls with heads of state within the coming days, Gustafson stated.
Nationwide safety officers stated they used different areas all through the West Wing and the Eisenhower Govt Workplace Constructing for calls with overseas leaders and different communications whereas the Scenario Room was below development.
The principle room — generally known as the JFK Convention Room, as a result of the safe communications suite was constructed throughout the Kennedy administration after the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 — consists of an enormous picket desk with 12 chairs on two sides and one on the head for the president, the vp or the nationwide safety adviser. It additionally has display panels for projections on one wall.
The convention room that was used to observe the bin Laden raid was changed into two smaller breakout rooms. Each are concerning the dimension of a walk-in closet.
All contractors who labored on the undertaking needed to get various levels of safety clearance, officers stated, as a result of they have been coping with extremely delicate info.
