Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-11-14
Fleming Will Head
White House Survey
Group to Study
Dire Shortage
Of Office Space
BY GEORGE BEvERIDGE


banker and Washington civic
leader, has been named chair.
man of the special commission
studying critical Office space
shortages at the White House.
Mr.. Fleming was chosen chair.
man at a recent initial meeting
OF the Advisory Commission on
Presidential Office Space, which
is to report to Congress by Feb
ruary on possibilities for solving
the problem.
Also present at the session, it
was learned. was Maj. Gen. Glen
E. Edgerton. who served as ex-
ecutive director of the commits
sion that supervised the White
House renovation several years
ago. One member of the new
commission said Gen. Edgerton
will play a role in the new Office
space study. Precise organiza-
tional decisions. however, he
said, will be made at a second
meeting in the near future.
Commission Members
Members of the new commits
sion, in addition to Mr.. Fleming,
are General Services Administra-
tor Franklin G. Floete, William
Orr, New Haven Comm archi-
tect, Senators Chavez. Democrat
of New Mexico. and Hruska, Re-
publican Of Nebraska, and Repre-
sentatives Smith, Democrat Of
Virginia, and McGregor, Repub-
lican of Ohio.
Mr.. Orr, who is a member of
the Federal Fine Arts Commits
sion, and Mr.. McGregor also
were among members of the old
Commission on Renovation OF
the Executive Mansion, of which
Gen. Edgerton was the staff
chief.
In a report to Congress in
September, 1852, on the White
House renovation, the old COM
mission went out of its way to
take special notice of the execu-
tive office space problem. The
report, in fact, proposed pre-
cisely the type of commission
study authorized by the last
Congress.
Little Done
Tracing the problems history,
the report noted that little has
been done in the last half-cen-
fury to keep pace with growing
ofhce-space needs of the White
House. 1t estimated that Office
space for the President and
those functions directly or very
closely related to him" would
require about 10000 square
feet. to house about $50 persons.
And this excluded such activities
as the Budget Bureau. Council
of Economic Advisers, National
Security Resources Board and
Office of Defense Mobilization.
At the same time, however.
the 1852 report stressed that a
structure adequate to meet the
needs could not be provided on
the White House grounds With
out great detriment to the
beauty of the building and its
surroundings"
Beyond this, in fact, the re-
port said, space that might be
evacuated if the Office functions
were removed from the grounds
entirely could very properly be
integrated into direct use with
the White House ITSELF"
Conference Space Needed
Part of the Office functions
closest to the President are in
the White House west wing,
established in 1902 as a tenn
porary" structure. Other activi-
ties-and the bulk of the agen-
cies related to the presidency
are in the old State Department
building just across the street
from the west wing.
In addition to cramped Offices,
the need is for conference space.
OF various sizes. storage and FL
ing space and space for meetings
with large groups of visitors.
In April. 1855, the White House
announced that a Cleveland con-
sultant firm had been hired to
study space requirements. The
report was never made public,
however. and last June President
Eisenhower told Congress the
acute" space problem was Of
such broad interest and impor-
lance that a commission should
be formed. Congress quickly au-
thorized the current study.
The need for a broad study was
pointed UP a decade ago when,
without extensive study, PTesi-
dent Truman proposed a SIG
million expansion TO triple the
size Of the old temporary" west
wing. Planning funds. however,