Falling ceiling debris at Kennedy Center may mire debate over renovations

Preservationists worry board may seize on incident ‘to make the point that the whole thing needs to be shut down’

Falling debris from a ceiling in the grand foyer of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts may have complicated a battle over renovations of the Washington DC arts center that could result in the building being demolished.

A portion of the ceiling collapsed on Friday evening after heavy rain swept through the area, prompting officials to temporarily close the Edward Durell Stone-designed building. No one was injured by the debris.

Kennedy Center officials posted online on Saturday that the incident showed renovations to the building were urgently needed – an argument that Donald Trump has made in concert with a broader second-term agenda to reshape Washington.

“Another warning we can’t ignore,” the Kennedy Center said in the post. “A section of the Grand Foyer ceiling collapsed after this week’s storms. Thankfully no one was hurt. Decades of deferred maintenance made this inevitable.”

Roma Daravi, the center’s vice-president for public relations, said in a statement that the collapse was “another example of the urgent need to close for renovation and revitalization, as our Chairman President Trump has championed”.

Alongside the White House ballroom, a proposed triumphal arch, fitful renovations to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool and a remodeled golf course on the banks of the Potomac, the Kennedy Center has become a significant project for the president.

The Trump-aligned board has proposed adding Trump’s name to the building’s facade and to close the center for two years as it undergoes $250m in renovations.

Last month, a federal judge expressed doubts about the Kennedy Center’s stated intention to return Trump’s name to the building after a district court blocked the renovations and said Trump’s name had been added to the center illegally and ordered it to be removed.

The board voted earlier this month to inscribe “The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J Trump” on the facade by 8 September.

If a fund for the renovations reaches $100m, another inscription would be added, reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.” Congress has approved $257m for the project, and the Trump administration wants to raise an additional $500m through private donations.

Administration attorneys have argued that without Trump’s name on the building it would struggle to raise money for renovations.

Without the Trump-backed funding, they argue, the building “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years”.

Last week a sculpture titled Blue by American post-minimalist Joel Shapiro was taken down. The Kennedy Center offered no reason for its removal, but said in a statement “we are honored to have been stewards” of the work.

Friday’s debris shower may strengthen the center’s position that the building needs a complete overhaul. Grace Terpstra of Keep the KC, a group fighting the center’s closure, told the Associated Press that the board may seize on the incident “to make the point that the whole thing needs to be shut down, that it’s going to fall on everybody”.

“I think they’ll try to make it into a bigger thing and show that they’ve found a lot of other things,” said Terpstra.