Who is Trump's White House architect James McCrery?

After an announcement last Thursday that US president Donald Trump will build a 650-person banquet hall on the east side of the White House complex, we take a closer look at James McCrery, the architect behind the design.

McCrery's eponymous studio, McCrery Architects, has been selected to design the 90,000-square-foot ballroom addition, which will replace the White House's East Wing and expand the building's hosting capabilities.

Catholic Architect Selected as Designer of White House Ballroom

‘New traditionalist’ designer of churches James McCrery has been chosen for the new project.https://t.co/y12dGtqnj0

— National Catholic Register (@NCRegister) August 5, 2025

Trump and McCrery, left, were seen surveying the White House

The architect was seen surveying the roof of the White House with Trump on Tuesday morning ahead of the renovation of the early 19th-century neoclassical structure, set to be the most intensive since the 1950s.

Well-known practitioner of classical architecture

McCrery has been an outspoken proponent of classical architecture and was appointed by Trump during his first term to serve on the US Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency that provides design consultation for the capital.

In choosing McCrery Architects for the banquet hall project, the White House referenced the studio's localness and the fact that it is well known for its "classical architectural design".

"I am honored that President Trump has entrusted me to help bring this beautiful and necessary renovation to The People's House, while preserving the elegance of its classical design and historical importance," said McCrery during the announcement.

Renderings of his design for the White House show an exterior that mostly adheres to its original style and an interior that reflects Trump's ornate interior preferences, with gilded Beaux Arts columns and a detailed chamfered ceiling.

A founding member of the non-profit National Civic Art Society, which promotes neoclassical architecture in DC, McCrery is an associate professor at Catholic University of America's (CUA) department of architecture.

At CUA, he works in a concentration called Classical Architecture and Urbanism, which promotes the "teaching together" of traditional and modernist architecture.

McCrery Architects' portfolio includes a number of high-profile projects, from civic to religious buildings.

Among these are a pedestal for a statue of US president Ronald Reagan, a gift shop at the US Supreme Court, and the massive cruciform Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Tennessee.

The Tennessee cathedral features a large dome and an exterior clad in limestone and brick, cementing McCrery's reputation as an ecclesiastical architect.

Other churches designed by McCrery include the St Mary Help of Christians Catholic church in Aiken, South Carolina, and the Our Lady of the Mountains in Highlands church in North Carolina.

Converted post-modernist

McCrery founded his firm, McCrery Architects, in Washington, DC, in the early 2000s after a stint at the office of classicist architect Allan Greenberg.

Prior to that, McCrery received his bachelor and master degrees in architecture from the Ohio State University.

The architect began his career in the offices of postmodern architect Peter Eisenman, but, according to his profile at CUA, "rethought his modernist education" and began to practice a classical approach.

In a conversation with the European Conservative in February of this year, he detailed his formative years and being enamoured with the rigour and intellectualism of Eisenman and post-modern architecture.

Ultimately, he became frustrated with what he saw as the lack of concern for beauty and truth in those spheres. McCrery found he felt more at home at Greenberg's office, and dove into the study of classical architecture.

"Americans love classical architecture"

McCrery outlined his current perspective on architecture in a talk hosted by Hillsdale College at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation in 2024, distinguishing the American classical tradition from others in Europe and from whole-cloth adaptations of foreign traditions.

"The very best American architecture is classical architecture once made American," he said, pointing to the inclusion of carpentry in American classical architecture as a distinct aspect of the form's adaptation to local culture.

McCrery's use of classical features mixed with Americanized styles can be seen in his church work, especially in the relatively spare St Mary Help of Christians church and in his brick-clad McEssy Library extension at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake.

"Americans love classical architecture because it is our formative architecture, and we love our nation's formation," he said.

He compared this to modern architecture, which has, he claimed, "never been made American" and called it a "stranger's architecture" that makes American cities "suffer".

McCrery lamented the politicisation of the debate around classical architecture for public buildings due to its association with Trump, reiterating a claim among proponents of classical architecture that the public prefers it.

"It's a known fact that America loves this stuff and prefers it and wants more of it," he said.

"These are truths. And because they're truths, they're reliable, and that's what I rely upon, and that's wherein my hope lies."

The White House stated that it aims to complete the ballroom project by the end of the Trump administration in 2028.

According to a statement from the White House, funding for the project will come from private sources. This has raised concerns from architecture professionals, with the AIA today calling for transparency and a focus on preservation.

The question of federal architecture's style has been hotly debated, especially since the end of Trump's first term, when he signed an executive order that federal buildings must be "beautiful", encouraging classical and traditional styles.

The mandate was rescinded by president Biden.

However, shortly after the beginning of his second term, Trump issued a fresh executive order called Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, which asks the General Services Administration, responsible for federal buildings, to create recommendations for promoting classical and traditional architecture in federal buildings.

The AIA has protested such federal mandates on the grounds that they "stifle innovation", while architect Steven Holl called the move "backwards", referencing moves to block modernist architecture by 20th-century dictators.

This back and forth has become known as the "style wars" in architecture, and has become a conversation in the UK as well, with Barnabas Calder calling both sides "wrong" in the face of the climate emergency in an article written for Dezeen.

McCrery Architects declined to comment for this story when contacted by Dezeen.

The main image is courtesy of the White House.

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