A federal judge imposed a 30-day notice requirement Thursday before major physical changes can be made to the Kennedy Center as the building remains closed for an emergency structural assessment and its board pursues a broader renovation plan.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center must give at least 30 days’ advance notice before demolishing the building or undertaking other significant physical alterations, a federal judge ruled Thursday amid a widening legal dispute over the future of the performing arts complex.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper added the notice requirement after President Donald Trump publicly raised the possibility that the deteriorating building could eventually be torn down and after Kennedy Center officials abruptly closed the facility to the public Wednesday.
Cooper said the order was intended to “avoid any confusion on that score given more recent events.”
The ruling does not order the Kennedy Center to reopen immediately or prohibit officials from addressing urgent safety problems. It requires advance notice before major physical changes, including demolition, giving the court and parties in the ongoing litigation time to respond.
The latest court action followed an emergency filing by Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio Kennedy Center trustee who has challenged efforts to place Trump’s name on the federally established memorial to President John F. Kennedy.
Beatty sought judicial intervention after the center closed Wednesday without advance public notice.
Matt Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, told the court the immediate shutdown resulted from “acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration” at the aging complex.
Floca said the building would remain closed for at least seven days to “assess existing safety risks in those portions of the main building exhibiting severe structural deterioration.”
Officials cited an inspection of the roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse earlier this month in explaining the emergency closure. Floca said the shutdown could be extended after the assessment is completed.
That seven-day emergency action is separate from a broader decision made Tuesday by the Kennedy Center board to close the venue for extensive renovations. Reuters reported that the board’s renovation plan contemplated a closure lasting as long as two years for a $257 million repair project funded by Congress.
Beatty’s attorneys questioned whether the stated repair rationale could lead to the institution remaining permanently closed.
The board members’ “rationale that they are only temporarily closing the Kennedy Center is a plain pretext to justify shutting down the Center permanently. The facts before the Court are deeply concerning,” her attorneys wrote Thursday.
They asked Cooper to hold an emergency hearing concerning the board’s actions and intentions and to expressly clarify that his previous orders prevented demolition.
Cooper declined to convene the requested hearing but agreed to “make crystal clear” that demolition could not proceed without the required advance notice.
The issue gained urgency following comments Trump made Wednesday about the condition of the building and his efforts to secure recognition for its renovation.
Trump, who became chairman of the Kennedy Center board last year, said his administration’s work to restore the complex should be acknowledged “because frankly, if we don’t do that, it’s going to close.”
“It’ll end up being ripped down. It’s in very, very bad shape, very dangerous shape,” Trump added.
Congress has allocated $257 million for work at the Kennedy Center. Trump has said the renovation should not move forward unless the board is permitted to recognize him on the building.
The dispute over the closure follows months of litigation over attempts to add Trump’s name to the center and its grounds.
On Tuesday, Cooper blocked the Kennedy Center board from proceeding with plans approved in August to place Trump’s name on the building’s facade and rename the plaza in front of the complex.
The proposed facade inscription would have read, “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”
The board had also approved a second inscription if the Trump Kennedy Center Fund raised $100 million: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
Cooper ruled that the board could not make those changes “without Congress’ blessing,” concluding that Congress controls the statutory name of the institution and that the board could not independently alter it.
That decision followed an earlier ruling in May in which Cooper found that the Kennedy Center had unlawfully added Trump’s name to the building and ordered it removed.
Officials complied in June, although tarp and scaffolding remained where the name had been displayed.
The naming dispute and Wednesday’s sudden closure are both part of Beatty’s ongoing lawsuit challenging changes at the institution.
The Kennedy Center was established by Congress as the national cultural center and later designated as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy. It opened in 1971.
The controversy also drew comments Thursday from Barbra Streisand, who was among the Kennedy Center Honorees in 2008.
Streisand questioned the decision to close the complex for repairs and described the wider dispute over its operation as “galling and painful to witness.”
Addressing efforts to place Trump’s name on the institution, Streisand said in a statement to The Associated Press, “You can easily imagine my indignation at seeing this revered institution become the subject of such a bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego.”
She also reflected on receiving the Kennedy Center honor.
“For me, and for so many artists, that honor represented something larger than a career recognition. It represented a belief in the importance of art to the life of a democracy,” Streisand said.
The immediate issue now facing Kennedy Center officials is the structural assessment that prompted Wednesday’s emergency shutdown.
The broader renovation plan and litigation over the building’s name remain unresolved, but Cooper’s Thursday order establishes a new requirement: the center cannot proceed with demolition or other major physical changes without first providing 30 days’ notice.
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