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TheWest Wing of theWhite House is the location of the office space of thepresident of the United States.[1] The West Wing contains theOval Office,[2] theCabinet Room,[3] theSituation Room,[4] and theRoosevelt Room.[5]
The West Wing's three floors include offices for thevice president, theWhite House chief of staff, thecounselor to the president, thesenior advisor to the president, theWhite House press secretary, and their support staffs. Adjoining the press secretary's office, in thecolonnade between the West Wing and theExecutive Residence, is theJames S. Brady Press Briefing Room, along with workspace for theWhite House press corps.
Before the construction of the West Wing, offices for the president and his staff were on the eastern end of the second floor of theExecutive Residence.[6] However, whenTheodore Roosevelt became president, he found that the existing offices in the mansion were insufficient to accommodate his family of six children as well as his staff.[7]
A year later, in 1902, First LadyEdith Roosevelt hiredMcKim, Mead & White to separate the living quarters from the offices, to enlarge and modernize the public rooms, to re-do the landscaping, and to redecorate the interior.[8] Congress approved over half a million dollars for the renovation.[9]
The West Wing was originally intended as a temporary office structure;[6] the site where it was built had formerly been occupied by stables and greenhouses. The president's rectangular office and the adjacent cabinet room were located in the eastern third of the West Wing, approximately where theRoosevelt Room is now.[10]
In 1909,William Howard Taft expanded the building southward, covering the tennis court. He placed the firstOval Office at the center of the addition's south facade, reminiscent of the oval rooms in theExecutive Residence.[6]
Herbert Hoover remodeled the West Wing early in his presidency, excavating a partial basement and supporting it with structural steel. The completed reconstruction lasted less than seven months.[10] On December 24, 1929, the West Wing was significantly damaged[2] by afour-alarm fire, the most destructive to strike the White House since theBurning of Washington 115 years earlier. Caused either by a faulty or blocked chimneyflue or defective wiring, the fire began in the attic storage space where an estimated 200,000 government pamphlets quickly ignited.[11] Fortunately, many important documents had recently been moved to theLibrary of Congress due to the remodeling of the West Wing.[12] During 1930, Hoover had the West Wing rebuilt and added air-conditioning.[7]
The fourth and final major reorganization was undertaken byFranklin D. Roosevelt. Dissatisfied with the size and layout of President Hoover's West Wing, he engaged New York architectEric Gugler to redesign it in 1933. To create additional space without increasing the apparent size of the building, Gugler excavated a full basement, added a set of subterranean offices under the adjacent lawn,[13] and built an unobtrusive "penthouse" storey.[10] The directive to wring the most office space out of the existing building resulted in narrow corridors and generally small staff offices. Gugler's most notable change was the addition to the east side containing a new Cabinet Room, Secretary's Office, and Oval Office.[10] The location of the new Oval Office gave presidents greater privacy, allowing them to slip back and forth between the Executive Residence and the West Wing outdoors on the covered portico, without being in the view of the staff or press indoors.[2]
As the size of the president's staff grew over the latter half of the 20th century, the West Wing could no longer house the entire staff. Today, most of the staff members of theExecutive Office of the President are located in the adjacentEisenhower Executive Office Building.
The ground floor is partially a basement, as the White House was located on a hill.
The West Wing ground floor is also the site of a smallrestaurant operated by thePresidential Food Service and staffed byNaval culinary specialists and called the White House Mess.[14][15] It is located underneath the Oval Office, and was established by PresidentTruman on June 11, 1951.[16]
During the 1930s, theMarch of Dimes constructed a swimming pool so that Franklin Roosevelt could exercise, as therapy for hispolio-related disability. Richard Nixon had the swimming pool covered over to create thePress Briefing Room, where theWhite House press secretary gives daily briefings.[17]
Originally this space was the office ofTheodore Roosevelt, but later it was converted into a meeting room. It became known as the "Fish Room" because Franklin D. Roosevelt kept anaquarium there and because both he andJohn F. Kennedy displayed trophy fish on the walls.
In 1969,Richard Nixon renamed the room in honor of the two presidents Roosevelt: Theodore, who first constructed the West Wing, and Franklin, who built the current Oval Office. By tradition, a portrait ofFranklin D. Roosevelt hangs over the mantel of theRoosevelt Room[5] during the administration of a president from theDemocratic Party and a portrait ofTheodore Roosevelt hangs during the administration of aRepublican president (althoughBill Clinton chose to retain the portrait of Theodore Roosevelt above the mantel). In the past, the portrait not hanging over the mantel was displayed on the opposite wall. However, during the first term ofGeorge W. Bush, an audio-visual cabinet was placed on the opposite wall to provide secure audio and visual conference capabilities across the hall from the Oval Office.
In 2025,Donald Trump unveiled the Presidential Walk of Fame on the West Colonnade. The Walk features black-and-white photographs of the 47 presidents in gold frames, except for one. In place ofJoe Biden, Trump added a photograph of anautopen, in a snub to his predecessor.[18]
Thejournalists,correspondents, and others who are part of the White House press corps have offices near the press briefing room.
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In 1999,The West Wing television series brought greater public attention to the workings of the presidential staff, as well as to the location of those working in the West Wing. The show followed the working lives of a fictional Democratic U.S. president,Josiah Bartlet, and his senior staff. When asked whether the show accurately captured the working environment in 2003, Press SecretaryScott McClellan commented that the show portrayed more foot traffic and larger rooms than in the real West Wing.[19]
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38°53′51″N77°02′15″W / 38.8975°N 77.0376°W /38.8975; -77.0376
