Judge orders notice before any Kennedy Center demolition

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration Thursday to give at least 30 days’ notice before taking any steps to demolish the Kennedy Center, less than a day after President Donald Trump said the performing arts complex could be “ripped down” and a photo showed him viewing a document that read “Kennedy Center Demolished.”

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also directed the Justice Department to file a detailed report by next Wednesday on the center’s current “temporary closure” and emergency repairs described in court filings by Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer.

The Justice Department said in court documents that the closure will last one week “unless extended” to address safety hazards. Floca said in a declaration that “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration… necessitated a temporary closure of most public spaces in the main building.”

In an email to Kennedy Center staff submitted to the court, Floca said any extensions would be evaluated week by week. “To be clear, this is not a decision to effectuate the Board’s separate vote to close the building for renovation,” he wrote. “It is a distinct decision by management to address imminent life-safety risks pending the Court’s ruling on that vote.”

The Guardian reported that Floca said the temporary closure followed an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month. The Kennedy Center’s board has voted to close the building for up to two years for a $257 million renovation, according to The Guardian. CBS News reported that Congress last year appropriated more than $250 million for the restoration.

The order came after Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio board member who has challenged Trump’s changes to the Kennedy Center, asked for an emergency hearing over what she called the “unlawful closure of the Kennedy Center.” Cooper denied the request for a hearing but imposed the 30-day notice requirement.

Beatty argued in court papers that the closure could allow officials to make public access impossible “by demolishing public avenues of access to the building, and thereby evade the Court’s order by fait accompli.” Her filing also said a witness saw a “forklift run into and hit the pillars on the building several times.” Fencing went up around the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, CBS News reported.

Kennedy Center spokeswoman Roma Davari said Wednesday on Real America’s Voice that “nothing is being demolished” and urged people to ignore “the media that is saying that because no one has ever said that coming from the institution.”

Trump told reporters Wednesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, that his administration should receive recognition if it raises money or becomes involved in the center’s restoration. “So for the Trump administration, for me, to get involved and to take that on long term and to carry it, or to raise money to carry it, I think that the Trump administration should certainly have recognition,” he said. “Because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close. It’ll end up being ripped down.”

A photo taken aboard Air Force One as Trump returned from North Carolina showed him looking at a document bearing the words “Kennedy Center Demolished,” CBS News reported. The Guardian, citing an Agence France-Presse photograph, reported that the final letters were obscured by the aircraft’s window frame and that the image does not establish that demolition was being planned.

The dispute follows Cooper’s Tuesday ruling that Trump’s name cannot be placed on the building without congressional approval. He said, “Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.” The board had sought recognition describing the building as restored and renovated by Trump, and had proposed additional recognition if a Trump Kennedy Center fund reached $100 million, The Guardian reported.

The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 and is the official living memorial to President John F. Kennedy.