Workers dug five feet underground to make more room and install cutting-edge technology allowing White House officials to bring together intelligence from different agencies with the push of a few buttons. “It’s a marriage of the traditional and the modern,” Gustafson said of the new space. Behind that is the main conference room, known as the “JFK room.” To the right are a smaller conference room and two soundproof “breakout rooms.” To the left is the “watch floor,” a 24-7 operations center. The complex is staffed around the clock by military and civilian personnel who monitor breaking developments worldwide. Presidents used the complex for secure video conferences before such tech became more portable.
Pristine edge more people upgrade#
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the White House did a significant Situation Room update, along with a broader upgrade to presidential communications on Air Force One and the presidential helicopter. But it wasn’t exactly comfortable: Nixon administration national security adviser and then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger described the space as “uncomfortable, unaesthetic and essentially oppressive.”Īfter the Sept. Kennedy believed there should be a dedicated crisis management center where officials could coordinate intelligence faster and better. The hush-hush complex was created in 1961 by the Kennedy administration after the Bay of Pigs invasion. Illuminated signs flash green for declassified and red for classified. Even the contractors working on the renovation had to get temporary security clearances. Anyone listening in on classified briefings needs clearance. (There are cubbies to stow phones near a door leading outside, where a baggie with some cocaine was found earlier this year.)Īccess is tightly controlled and generally restricted to the president’s national security and military advisers. The whole space has that new car smell.īut there are still plenty of landline phones: No cellphones are allowed in the secure space for security reasons. See-through glass offices fade to opaque with the press of a button. Old floors, furniture, computers and other tech were stripped out and replaced with pristine mahogany paneling from Maryland, stonework from a Virginia quarry, LED lights that can change colors and flat-screen panels. The renovated space has a modern-but-vintage vibe. President Joe Biden got a tour on Tuesday and then received an intelligence briefing in the space, said Marc Gustafson, the Situation Room director. The White House opened the classified space to a group of reporters this week for a rare visit to check out the new look. The latest redo was no small update: The total gut renovation took a year to complete.
Where President Lyndon Johnson went over Vietnam War plans. Where President Donald Trump monitored the 2019 operation that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Where President Barack Obama and his team watched the raid that took down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. These are rooms where history happens, where the president meets with national security officials to discuss secret operations and sensitive government matters, speaks with foreign leaders and works through major national security crises. It’s a 5,500-square-foot (511-square-meter), highly secure complex of conference rooms and offices on the ground floor of the West Wing. WASHINGTON - The White House Situation Room - a space of great mystique and even greater secrecy - just got a $50 million facelift.Īctually, “room” is a misnomer.
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