White House Summer 2025

We returned to DC for the first time in several years for the July 4th holiday, while there we saw the Stealth Bombers and fighter escort flyover of the White House.

Fighters flying over the statue of Andrew Jackson in LaFayette Square

Stealth Bomber and escorts flying over LaFayette Square

Fighters flying over the White House

Stealth Bombers and escorts flying over the White House

South face of the White House facing the National Mall with new flagpole

New flagpole at the North Lawn of the White House

The spectacular Second Empire/Victorian neo-classical splendor of the Old Executive Office Building on the West side of the White House, an American version of something out of 19th Century Paris or 1971 Orlando (Walt Disney World Main Street USA)

Old Executive Office Building

Another great late 19th Century building is the Renwick Gallery across the street from the White House. Behind it is the "sympathetic" Mid-Century Modern New Executive Office Building from the mid 1960's where they tried to blend the need for more White House office space while "preserving" the historical charm of LaFayette Square. Somewhat successful on the park side where they incorporated the federal era townhome facades.

DC has a lot of these eggcrate brutalist office buildings encouraged by a Kennedy/Johnson era plan to modernize DC. The most infamous being the FBI building on Pennsylvania Avenue. You can sort of see with the Old Executive Office Building in the back how they are a very reduced version of neo-classical architecture somewhat matching in color if not in spirit.

Youngest son in front of the White House, while we have been a few times over the years he was not born when we lived in DC and this is probably the first trip of his conscious memory. We were happy to hear how much he enjoyed it.

Remarkable giant dollhouse interactive model at "The People's House" visitor center across the street from the Renwick Gallery near the White House.

Pretty convincing photo mural photo op of the White House Cross Hall.

Fun recreation of the Oval Office at "The People's House", at the time we went it was decorated in the style of Joe Biden's presidency. It has since been set up as the first Trump term, but has yet to be made to match the current scheme with numerous examples of gilded trim and accents 

Siting in "the President's" chair

At the Resolute Desk

VIP on line one

My Chief of Staff is taking an important call

Chief of Staff bringing me up to speed on the very important phone call

Wonderful replica of the White House Movie Theater

The People's House Museum, very worthwhile experience.

New flagpole on the North Lawn of the White House

A city of magnificent intentions

Washington, DC is like a European city with an American accent. It has a Parisian quality to it, with its broad avenues and neoclassical buildings, and what with the influence of French city planner L’Enfant it is understandable. It sits along the great Potomac River, like London on the Thames or Paris on the Seine. Washington was a planned city though; it took 200 years to fill in according to an ambitious design whereas the great capitals of Europe developed organically over many more centuries. Charles Dickens mocked it's slogan "The City of Magnificent Distances" and called it "The City of Magnificent Intentions", for it's broad avenues were muddy ruts and it's buildings were unfinished at the time of his visit. It is fascinating how Washington appropriates the forms of neoclassical architecture in ways that are so different from European and classical precedent.

Take the White House, although certainly a grand house was it really that much more elaborate than the home of a successful Colonial planter? Washington’s influence and that of his beloved Mount Vernon undoubtedly had something to do with that.

It was modeled on an Irish country house, and not a Versailles or a Buckingham Palace. This was to be the seat of the chief executive of the new nation.

The capital looks similar to St.Paul’s Cathedral in London and it borrows the dome of the great churches. In a church the dome would be placed farther away from the entrance where the 2 wings from a cross over the altar. At the capitol that axis is turned so that entry is in the center of the long side, and the dome marks not a crossing but the joint between two large meeting rooms. The dome is placed above the symbolic gathering place of the representatives of the people.

The Washington Monument takes the form of an Egyptian obelisk, only at a gargantuan scale, and it is a single obelisk when Egyptian custom was for obelisks to be paired. It represents the emerging American technical prowess of its time as it remains the tallest masonry structure in the world.

The Lincoln Memorial is a modified Greek temple to the man who saved the union, like the capitol it is rotated so that entry is through what would be the side if it were the Parthenon.

The Jefferson Memorial recalls the Pantheon in Rome that inspired Thomas Jefferson in his own designs for Monticello and the library of the University of Virginia.

Union Station recalls both Roman triumphal arches as befitting a ceremonial entry to the capital city; its arches frame a distant view of the capitol dome. The station also evokes the great Roman baths(large communal gathering places)for use as a railroad passenger terminal. These formal adaptations reflect the way in which America evolved from and sought to improve on the western democratic tradition.

2 years in DC

It has now been over 2 years since I moved to our nations capitol. Fate has seen that my life seems to move in 2 year increments who knows what the future holds. When I started this blog I was living in the Inland Suburbs of Los Angeles(Highland/San Bernardino) and working in the Palm Springs area designing houses. I ended up starting a job in Greater Los Angeles designing Wal-Marts and moving to Whittier. And then like President Nixon I moved from Whittier to Washington, DC. Here I get to do a lot of traveling throughout the mid-Atlantic, so I am going to start chronicling some of those adventures.

This picture was taken on the South Lawn of the White House. There are spring and winter tours which allow you to get upclose to the residence, which is a real treat. I was able to arrange a tour of the interior for my Mother's birthday in 2009 but they don't allow cameras on the interior tour. But for the garden tour you are free to take pictures, so here I am with a friend(and several others) enjoying this suburb example of public housing. Being from southern California I am very much familiar with Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm and the nearby if not so equally famous Hobby City. Which includes a replica of the White House that houses a toy museum. This slightly larger example is equally impressive but unfortunately it is not filled with toys.