White House Ballroom Columns to be Sculpted by Italian Artisans Using Indiana Limestone

The U.S. Supreme Court has approved the construction of a $400 million ballroom proposed by President Donald Trump, which will replace the historic East Wing of the White House.

While President Trump announced the overall budget for the project on Saturday, Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Management and Administration, shared further specifics with CBS News.

Among the key details is that the ballroom’s grand colonnade will be hand-carved by “some of the greatest artists in the world.”

Although the specific artists remain unnamed, they are currently working in Italy, where high-quality limestone quarried in Indiana has been transported for the project, according to Fisher.

What Will Trump’s New Ballroom Look Like? Italian Columns Planned

The ambitious nature of the project is evident in the documentation submitted to the Supreme Court, which was released following a legal challenge by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to halt the construction.

Spanning over 8,000 square meters, the planned structure is significantly larger than the main White House building itself and is designed to host up to 1,000 guests.

The construction site is employing approximately 200 workers and will utilize massive quantities of steel, concrete, marble, and gold—materials synonymous with Trump’s architectural style, some of which have already been integrated into the Oval Office.

The White House has emphasized that the project is entirely privately funded, with approximately $355 million of the budget already raised. The towering structure, standing over twenty meters high, is slated for completion by the end of Trump’s second presidential term.

According to Fisher, the exterior façade is expected to be “virtually completed” by April 2028, bringing the Italian stonemasons into the spotlight. But who are these artisans, and where will they be working?

A Legacy of Italian Craftsmanship in American Landmarks

The expansive new facility is designed to include state-of-the-art security and utility features, such as air-raid shelters, medical facilities, secure meeting rooms, a rooftop landing pad for drones and helicopters, drone-proof ceilings, and bulletproof windows.

The entire structure will be framed by a grand Corinthian colonnade, drawing aesthetic inspiration from the nearby Supreme Court and the U.S. Capitol. Notably, the Capitol itself benefited from Italian craftsmanship in 1815, when President Thomas Jefferson summoned artisans from Italy—including Giovanni Andrei of Carrara, the world-renowned marble city—to carve its capitals.

While no official announcement has yet been made regarding the specific firms selected for this endeavor, historical precedents offer some clues.

The Commission of Fine Arts approved a design last February featuring eight massive columns in the main portico of the former East Wing. Although the stone itself is American, the specialized labor to carve it will be Italian.

This reliance on Italian expertise evokes the legacy of Michelangelo, who spent extensive periods in Tuscany supervising the extraction and selection of white marble from the Apuan Alps for his legendary masterpieces.

Carrara has a history of supplying marble for Trump’s projects, including custom decorations for the Trump International Hotel in 2010, years before he entered politics.

MTStone Carrara S.r.l., a firm that produced 150 square meters of white onyx panels for the Trump International Hotel, is associated with these marble works, though the company itself does not specialize in sculpture.

Another potential candidate is the town of Pietrasanta, located twenty kilometers south of Carrara, which has its own history of public commissions in the United States.

In 2008, local sculptor Giancarlo Buratti was commissioned to create statues for the chapel of Thomas Aquinas College in California, further cementing the town’s connection to American architectural projects.

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