Obama To Move To ‘Replica’ Oval Office While White House Undergoes Renovation

With the White House preparing for a two-year renovation of the West Wing, President Obama may be moving into a “replica” Oval Office, according to a report by RealClearPolitics. The renovation would “complete a new executive office for President Obama at the south end of the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building.”

The second Oval Office is a “nearly identical replica” — and Obama would move there by August, if he’s ready and the “design challenges” are resolved.

Per RCP:

The timing of Obama’s move to a substitute executive suite is in part dependent on the president’s readiness to begin working in the temporary quarters for what could be as long as two years, sources told RCP. The West Wing phase of a larger, $376 million project begun in September 2010 was put on pause through last year’s election, although funding and contracts were ready, the sources said. If Mitt Romney had won in November, Obama would have handed decisions about whether and how to proceed with the rehab project to his successor, they added.

“Decades of repairs, redecoration and technological add-ons have been layered atop an antique foundation” since the Oval Office was added to the White House, RCP noted. Meaning “other presidents have been inconvenienced in this fashion.”

The exact timing of the project is still unclear. “We have eight to 10 months to get ready,” one source said in the report.

(h/t RCP)

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