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The leadership of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is mounting a public campaign to defend its planned two-year shutdown, walking lawmakers, donors, and the press through cobwebbed pump rooms, corroded loading docks, and a rust-pocked electrical vault to demonstrate that the building has aged past the point of routine repair. The push, detailed in reporting by The New York Times and documented by The Associated Press during a media walk-through last week, comes as two federal lawsuits threaten to upend the closure before its scheduled July start.
At the center of the effort is Matt Floca, the institution’s new executive director and chief operating officer, a former operations chief who has taken over guiding the tours that frame a full closure as the only practical way to address what he describes as overlapping structural, mechanical, and safety problems. According to The Times, Mr. Floca has emphasized water damage, decaying fireproofing in the parking garage, and obsolete elevator and stage equipment, and has cited outside consultant assessments to back his recommendation. The AP reported that several of the building’s 800-ton chillers, which help cool the more than 1.5 million square feet of interior space, are decades old and due for replacement, and that water damage in some areas has eroded steel to a tissue-thin state.
A suit filed by Representative Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat and ex officio trustee, contends that the closure is a cover for a decline in attendance and donor confidence triggered by President Trump’s takeover of the board and the addition of his name to the building’s exterior, The Times reported. A second lawsuit, brought by preservation and architectural groups, argues the institution skipped required historic-review steps for a project of this scale. Both suits raise concerns that, absent a court order, the renovation could escalate in the manner of the East Wing demolition at the White House earlier this year. The AP has noted that artists including Jane Fonda and Billy Porter have publicly distanced themselves from the institution, treating it as a flashpoint in a broader debate over the administration’s reshaping of national cultural institutions.
Center officials have rejected the demolition framing in court and insist the work will be more limited than Mr. Trump’s earlier description of a “complete rebuilding” suggested. They have acknowledged that local Washington attendance fell after the change in leadership but point to roughly $130 million in fundraising since Mr. Trump assumed the chairmanship, much of it credited to corporate donors and his own involvement, per The Times. The AP reported that the renovation is backed by nearly $257 million from Congress, with private donors expected to help underwrite the refurbishment of more exclusive areas such as lounges. Mr. Floca told the AP that closing the building entirely, rather than tackling repairs piecemeal, was his own recommendation to the president, and credited Mr. Trump’s hands-on involvement: “He’s in the details, and it’s amazing.”
The fallout is already reshaping the institution. Layoffs began last month, only a skeletal staff is expected to remain through the closure -Mr. Floca described it to the AP as “pretty bare bones” -and programmers are scrambling to relocate marquee events, including performances by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Honors.
A hearing this week in Ms. Beatty’s case underscored the stakes. Her attorneys argued that a prolonged closure risks permanently driving away audiences and donors, while lawyers for the center countered that the litigation itself is delaying repairs the building urgently needs. Mr. Floca has told the AP that elements honoring John F. Kennedy -including the eight-foot bronze bust in the Grand Foyer and quotations inscribed on the building’s walls – will remain in place, and that the Opera House’s signature red-on-red interior is expected to be preserved with only modest updates.
