[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2259106655.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA group of eight preservation societies filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president\u2019s plans for a two-year renovation of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
\n\tLast week, the Kennedy Center\u2019s board approved the closure of the institution for two years, beginning after its July 4 celebrations for the US\u2019s 250th anniversary, so that it could undergo renovations. The extent of the planned renovations remains unclear. President Donald Trump said in February the Kennedy Center is \u201ctired, broken, and dilapidated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn their suit, which was first reported on by the Washington Post<\/em>, the plaintiffs describe the Kennedy Center as \u201ca defining landmark within the monumental core of the Nation\u2019s capital\u201d and that it\u2019s modernist design and role as a venue for the performing arts \u201cform an irreplaceable legacy of history, architecture, and civic purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tNow, \u201c[t]hat legacy is in peril,\u201d the suit adds, citing Trump\u2019s plan to close the Kennedy Center within four months to \u201cundergo major structural work\u2014up to and including demolition and reconstruction.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe suit asks the court to intervene in the closure and renovation until the Kennedy Center board submits to a review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts and National Historic Preservation Act and under the National Environmental Policy Act, as well as receive Congressional approval for any renovations.<\/p>\n \n\tThe suit adds, \u201cThe intent of the Board of Trustees and Mr. Trump is clear: To fundamentally alter this iconic property without complying with bedrock federal historic preservation and environmental laws, and without securing the necessary congressional authorization. And the harm is imminent, as the Board of Trustees and Mr. Trump admit they have already commenced preliminary construction work.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe plaintiffs of this latest lawsuit, which was filed in US District for the District of Columbia, are the DC Preservation League, the National Trust for the Historic Preservation, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, Docomomo, the Society of Architectural Historians, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation.<\/p>\n \n\tThe suit\u2019s initial defendants\u2019 list goes beyond the Kennedy Center board and Trump, the chair of the board, to include the Smithsonian Institution, the National Park Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Department of the Interior and its Secretary Douglas J. Burgum. The Trump administration has yet to comment on the suit.<\/p>\n \n\tRenamed in 1964 as a \u201cliving memorial\u201d to John F. Kennedy, the Kennedy Center has been a target of Trump\u2019s since the beginning of his second administration. He has dismissed 18 board members and installed a new board that elected him as chair. Trump then sought to rename the Kennedy Center to include his name in its official title.<\/p>\n \n\tThe lawsuit also argues that Trump\u2019s addition of his name to the building\u2019s facade and his order to paint its iconic gold columns white, both of which were done without submitting to review as required by federal law, \u201creflect a deliberate pattern of advancing physical changes\u201d that is intentional. In this instance, federal law requires that the reviewing agencies perform their \u201cnondiscretionary duty to deny permits, licenses, and approvals unless and until the agency has completed a specific consultation process with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation,\u201d per the suit.<\/p>\n \n\tRebecca Miller, executive director of plaintiff DC Preservation League, told the Post<\/em> that the \u201cKennedy Center is not a personal project of any president. It is a national cultural monument built to honor John F. Kennedy and to serve the American people. Federal law requires transparency, expert review and public participation before it can be fundamentally altered.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/preservation-societies-lawsuit-kennedy-center-trump-1234778757\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2259106655.jpg?w=1024″] A group of eight preservation societies filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president\u2019s plans for a two-year renovation of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Last week, the Kennedy Center\u2019s board approved the closure of the institution for two years, beginning after its July 4 celebrations for the US\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1845222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}