Oval Office

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The Oval Office is the office space of the President of the United States located in the West Wing of the White House, Washington, DC.

This room has three large windows facing south behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end. It has four doors: the east door opens onto the Rose Garden; west door leads to study and private dining room; the northwest door opens into the main corridor of the West Wing; and the northeast door opens to the office of the president's secretary.

Presidents generally decorate the office according to their personal taste, choose new furniture, new curtains, and design their own oval-shaped carpet to take most of the floor. Artwork is selected from the collection of the White House itself, or borrowed from the museum for the term of office president.

Video Oval Office

Cultural history

The Oval Office has become part of the American mind with the presidency itself through memorable pictures, such as John F. Kennedy, Jr. who peeked through his father's front panel, President Richard Nixon spoke on the phone with Apollo 11 astronauts during their moonwalk, and his daughter Amy Carter brought his cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang to brighten President Jimmy Carter's day. Some presidents have called the nation from the Oval Office on certain occasions. Examples include Kennedy presenting news about the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), Nixon announcing his resignation from office (1974), Ronald Reagan following the Space Shuttle Challenger (1986), and George W. Bush in the wake of the attack September 11 (2001).

Maps Oval Office

Antecedents

Washington Bow Window

George Washington never occupied the White House. He spent most of his presidency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which served as the temporary national capital for 10 years, 1790-1800, while Washington, D.C. under construction.

In 1790, Washington built a large, two-storey, semi-circular building behind the Presidential House in Philadelphia, creating a ceremonial space where the public would meet with the President. Standing in front of three windows from the Bow Window, he officially receives guests for Tuesday evening assignments, delegates from Congress and foreign officials, and the general public at home open on New Year's Day, July Fourth, and his birthday.

"Washington accepts his guests, standing between the windows in his living room.The company, entering the hall and through an open door, greeting the President, and shutting down, stands to one side."

President John Adams occupied the Philadelphia mansion from March 1797, and used the Bow Window in the same way as his predecessor.

The curved basics of the Washington Bow Window were discovered during an archaeological excavation in 2007 from the President's House website. They are on display under glass at Memorial House President, north of Liberty Bell Center.

White House

The architect James Hoban visited President Washington in Philadelphia in June 1792 and would see the Bow Window. The following month, he was named the winner of the design competition for the White House.

The "elliptical salon" in the center of the White House is an outstanding feature of Hoban's early plans. Oval interior space is a Baroque concept adapted by Neoclassicism. The Oval Room became popular in neoclassical architecture of the 18th century.

In November 1800, John Adams became the first President to occupy the White House. He and his successor, President Thomas Jefferson, used Hoban's oval chambers in the same ceremonial manner as Washington used in the Bow Window, standing in front of three windows on the southern end to receive guests.

During the 19th century, a number of presidents used the Oval Oval Office at the White House as an office or private library.

West Wing

The West Wing is the idea of ​​President Theodore Roosevelt, brought by his wife's opinion that the second floor of the White House, then divided between the bedroom and office, should only be domestic space. The one-story Executive Office Building is intended to be a temporary structure, for use until permanent buildings are established either on the site or elsewhere. Building it to the west of the White House enabled the removal of a roughly decrepit civilian pre-war greenhouse set that had been built by President James Buchanan. Roosevelt moved the executive branch to the newly built wing in 1902. The workroom is a two-room suite of Executive Office and Cabinet Room, which is located west of the Cabinet Room now. Furniture, including the president's desk, was designed by architect Charles Follen McKim and executed by A. H. Davenport and Company, Boston.

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Office Oval Taft: 1909-1933

President William Howard Taft made the West Wing a permanent building, extending it south, doubling its size, and building the first Oval Office. Designed by Nathan C. Wyeth and completed in 1909, the office is centered on the south side of the building, just like an oval room in the White House. Taft intends to be the seat of his government, and, by placing him in the middle of the West Wing, he can be more involved with his presidential daily operations. The Oval Office Taft has a simple Georgia Awakening trim, and the most colorful possibilities in history; the walls are covered with weeds of living sea grass.

On December 24, 1929, during the reign of President Herbert Hoover, a fire greatly damaged the West Wing. Hoover uses this as an opportunity to create more space, digging up partial basements for additional offices. He restores Oval Office, improves trim quality and installs AC. He also replaced the furniture, which has not undergone major changes in twenty years.

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Modern Oval Office: 1934-present

Unsatisfied with the size and layout of the West Wing, President Franklin D. Roosevelt involves New York Eric Gugler architects to redesign in 1933. To create additional space without increasing the size of real buildings, Gugler dug a full cellar, adding a set of offices underground at the bottom of the adjacent courtyard, and build an unobtrusive "penthouse" story. Referrals for extorting most office space from existing buildings are responsible for narrow corridors and narrow office staff. The most visible addition of Gugler is the eastern building expansion for the new Cabinet Room and Oval Office.

The modern Oval Office is built in the southeast corner of West Wing, offering FDR, which is physically disabled and uses a wheelchair, more privacy and easier access to the Residence. He and Gugler designed a room that was architecturally more magnificent than the previous two rooms, with stronger Georgian detail: the doors above with substantial materials, bookshelves arranged into niches, deep petals, and a ceiling medal from the Presidency Seal. Instead of chandeliers or ceiling fixtures, the room is lit by a light bulb hidden inside the cornice that "washes" the ceiling in the light. In small ways, the instructions of Art Moderne can be seen, in the window flanking sconces and eagle representations in the medal of the ceiling. FDR and Gugler work closely together, often at breakfast, with Gugler sketching out presidential ideas. One idea that resulted from these improved sketches in the room furnishings layout was two high back chairs in front of the fireplace. The public sees this most often with the president sitting on the left, and the head of the visiting country on the right. This allows the FDR to sit down, with its guests on the same level, not stressing its inability to stand up. The construction of the modern Oval Office was completed in 1934.

Decorations

The basic Oval Office furniture is a table in front of three windows on the southern end, a pair of chairs in front of the fireplace at the north end, a pair of sofas, and various tables and chairs. The Neoclassical Fireplace was made for the Taft Oval Office in 1909, and was rescued after the 1929 West Wing fire. The tradition of displaying Swedish ivy in pots ( Plectranthus verticillatus ) above the fireplace returned to the administration of John F. Kennedy, and the current plant rooted from native plants.

Federal working hours, made in Boston by John and Thomas Seymour c. 1795-1805 - commonly known as the grandfather clock of the Oval Office - purchased by the White House Historical Association in 1972, and has stood next to the east entrance of the Oval Office since 1975.

The carpet from the Oval Office bears the Seal of the President. President Harry S. Truman's oval carpet was the first to combine the presidential seal. On the Truman rug, seals are represented monochromatically through various depths of pile pieces. The carpet was used in the governments of Eisenhower and Kennedy. In recent years most administrations have made their own carpets, working with interior designers and White House Curators. As part of the overall restoration of the White House, Jacqueline Kennedy has a Redecoration Oval Office that began on November 21, 1963, when she accompanied President John F. Kennedy on a trip to Texas. The next day, November 22, a new carpet was installed just as the Kennedys walked past Dallas and the President was murdered.

Desk

Six tables have been used in the Oval Office by US Presidents. Theodore Roosevelt's table was used there by seven presidents - last by Dwight Eisenhower - and by Theodore Roosevelt in his non-oval office.

The popular is the Resolute Desk, so named because it is made of British frigate timber HMS Resolute . The ship had been frozen in the Arctic ice and abandoned but later discovered and freed by American sailors. It was refurbished and presented as a gift from the United States to Queen Victoria in 1856. When the ship was deactivated from the British Navy in 1879, Queen Victoria ordered the wooden twin tables, guarding one and presenting the other as a present for President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a knee-length panel with a Presidential Seal added, but the work was not completed until after 1945 his death at the office. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy has restored the table, and she's the first to place it in the Oval Office. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the table toured the country as part of a traveling exhibition for the Kennedy Presidential Library and then loaned to the Smithsonian Institution. President Jimmy Carter brought the table back to the Oval Office in the 1970s. Since then, President Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump also use it as an Oval Office table.

When not in use in the Oval Office, tables are often placed in an adjacent Oval Office Study, in the White House, or used by the vice president.

Artwork

Decorator Ted Graber arranges for the floor to be built, installed, and donated by Rode Brothers from Los Angeles.

Art can be selected from the White House collection, or it can be borrowed from museums or individuals for an administrative period.

Most presidents hung a portrait of George Washington - usually a portrait of Rembrandt Peale "Porthole" or a three-quarters portrait of Charles Willson Peale - on a shelf at the north end of the room. A portrait of Andrew Jackson by Thomas Sully was hanged in Lyndon Johnson's office, and in Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. A portrait of Abraham Lincoln by George Henry Story is hung in the George W. Bush office, and continues at Barack Obama. Three landscapes/cityscape by small artist - City of Washington from Beyond the Navy Yard by George Cooke, Eastport and Passamaquoddy Bay by Victor de Grailly, and Presidential House , a copy after William Henry Bartlett - has graced the walls in several administrations. The Avenue in the Rain by Childe Hassam and Working in the Statue of Liberty by Norman Rockwell flanking the Resolute Desk in Bill Clinton's office, and doing the same at Barack Obama.

Sculptures, statues, heads, and sculptures are often displayed in the Oval Office. Abraham Lincoln has been the most common subject, in the works of the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Gutzon Borglum, Adolph Alexander Weinman, Leo Cherne and others. In the recent administration, the traditional statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin have given way to the heads of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman or Dwight Eisenhower. Western bronze by Frederic Remington has often been a choice: Harry S. Truman is shown Fired On ; Lyndon Johnson featured Bronco Buster, as did Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. President Reagan and Bush added a companion section, Rattlesnake .

President Harry S. Truman displays works related to his state in Missouri, biplane illustrations, and jet model aircraft. He hung great photographs of the White House portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, under whom he served as Vice President, who died in office in 1945. President Dwight Eisenhower filled the office wall with landscape paintings, as well as Robert E. Lee's paintings. President John F. Kennedy surrounded himself with paintings of sea battles from the War of 1812, photographs of sailboats, and ship models. President Lyndon Johnson put up sconces on either side of the shelf, and added the first painting of the office by a female artist, Franklin D. Roosevelt by Elizabeth Shoumatoff. President Richard Nixon tried three different portraits of George Washington on the shelf, and hung copies of Earthrise - a photograph of the earth taken from the moon's orbit during the Apollo 8 mission - next to his desk. President Gerald Ford presents tasteful and conservative works; paintings that remain largely in place through the administration of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. President George H. W. Bush added the luminary landscape. President Bill Clinton chose the paintings of Childe Hassam and Norman Rockwell mentioned above, along with Waiting Hours by William T. Carlton, a genre painting showing African Americans gathered to anticipate the Emancipation Proclamation taking effect.. President George W. Bush combines traditional works with paintings by Texas artists and Western statues. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, British Prime Minister Tony Blair lent him a statue of Winston Churchill, who had guided Great Britain through World War II. President Barack Obama honors Abraham Lincoln with portraits by Story, a statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. Under the proclamation is a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. by Charles Alston, and on the nearest bookshelf is a program from August 28, 1963 to March in Washington, where Dr. King gave "I Have a Dream Speech."

Redecoration

The tradition developed in the later part of the twentieth century of any new government redecorating the office in accordance with the President's wishes. New administrations usually choose oval carpets, new curtains, paintings on the walls, and some furniture. Most of the incoming presidents continued to use the carpet of their predecessors until they were newly installed. The carpets of pensioners are very often then transferred to the president's presidential library for whom it was made.

Redecoration from the Oval Office is usually coordinated by the First Lady's office in the East Wing, working with interior designers and the Curator White House.

Changes

Since the construction of the current Oval Office in 1934 during the reign of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the room has remained largely unchanged architecturally. More than any president, FDR left an impression in the room and its use. Doors and window frames have been modified slightly. A screen door on the east wall was removed after installation of the air conditioner. President Lyndon B. Johnson line wire service Teletype machine on the southeast wall needed cutting plaster and floor to accommodate the cable. Georgian cotton ornaments have been cleaned to remove the collected paint, and a series of hollow electric sconces have come and gone.

Although some presidents have chosen to do daily work in smaller studies in the west of the Oval Office, most use the actual Oval Office for work and meetings. Traffic from a large number of staff, visitors, and pets from time to time brings casualties. There are four sets of flooring in the Oval Office. The original floor is made of cork mounted on softwood; however, President Dwight D. Eisenhower is an avid golfer and ruins the floor with his golf spikes. Johnson had the floor replaced in the mid-1960s with wood-grain linoleum. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan replaced the floor with sawn timber and walnut, with a crossed parquet pattern similar to the design of Eric Gugler's sketch in 1933, which had never been installed. In August 2005, the floor was replaced again under President George W. Bush, with exactly the same pattern as the Reagan floor.

Preservation

In the late 1980s, a comprehensive assessment of the entire house, including the Oval Office, was made as part of the Historic Service Service Survey of the American Service National Service . Detailed photographs and measured images were made documenting the interior and exterior and showing a slim imperfection. A list of materials and methods is made for future conservation and restoration.

Dimensions

The ratio of the major axis to the minor axis is around 21:17 or 1.24.

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Office Oval Taft, 1909-1933

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References

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Further reading

• Part of this article is based on the public domain text of the White House.
• White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association and National Geographic Society: 2001. ISBN: 0-912308-79-6.
• Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBNÃ, 0-442-02532-7.
• Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Invitation to the White House: At Home with History. Simon & amp; Schuster: 2000. ISBNÃ, 0-684-85799-5.
• Monkman, Betty C. White House: Historic Furniture & amp; Family First. Abbeville Press: 2000. ISBNÃ, 0-7892-0624-2.
• Ryan, William, and Desmond Guinness. White House: Architectural History. McGraw Hill Book Company: 1980. ISBNÃ, 0-07-054352-6.
• Seale, William. Presidential House. White House Historical Association and National Geographic Society: 1986. ISBN: 0-912308-28-1.
• Seale, William, White House: The History of American Ideas. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN: 0-912308-85-0.
• West, J.B. with Mary Lynn Kotz. Upper Floor at the White House: My Life with First Woman. Coward, McCann & amp; Geoghegan: 1973. ISBNÃ, 0-698-10546-X.

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External links

• historic Oval Office photo essay
• Images from Oval Office during different presidencies (1909-2005)
• Washington Post : "Inside the Real West Wing"
• Office Oval and President's desk
• Online Tour of the White House: Oval Office
• Oval Office at Whitehouse.gov
• Google Sketchup 3D Model
• Office Oval Creation 2010
• Office Installed for Presidents - slideshow by The New York Times

Source of the article : Wikipedia