The entire east wing of the White House has been demolished, part of President Trump's plan to build a new White House ballroom.

The demolition, which began this week without prior public notice, has drawn sharp criticism from preservationists and historians.

In a statement, the National Trust for Historic Preservation called for the work to stop, saying it's concerned that the massing and height of

the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself and may also permanently

disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House. President Trump had previously

insisted the project would not affect the East Wing, which for decades housed the first

ladies' offices.

Joining us now to discuss the renovation is Priya Jan, chair of the Heritage Preservation Committee

at the Society of Architectural Historians and a professor at Texas A&M University.

Thanks for being with us.

Thank you for having me.

You know, one would expect the White House, given its historic importance, its national symbolism,

to have extraordinary preservation restrictions.

Why doesn't it?

So this goes back to an exemption in the Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966,

where the White House, the U.S. Supreme

Court and the U.S. Capitol Building were marked as exempt.

Other federal buildings are federally assisted projects where historic buildings are impacted

go through this very comprehensive review process.

Now, having said that, despite the exemption, previous studies done at

the White House with the involvement of the National Park Service note that even though this formal

process is not required, the NPS staff tried to adhere to this process to the best extent as possible.

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