Renovations to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington could exceed $200 million and take upwards of two years to complete.
That is the estimate offered on Monday by President Trump who declared “I’m not ripping it down. I’ll be using the steel.”
Opened in the fall of 1971 during a lavish ceremony attended by President Richard Nixon, Kennedy’s 1960 opponent for the presidency, the center was designed by famed architect Edward Durell Stone and cost around $61 million to complete.
Last week Trump announced plans to close the center officially on July 4 of this year, saying that a comprehensive renovation of the facility will make it, “without question, the finest performing arts facility of its kind, anywhere in the world.”
Trump additionally described the center in its current condition as “tired, broken, and dilapidated,” adding that it has been “in bad condition, both financially and structurally, for many years.”
The center was expanded in 2019 at a cost of $250 million, largely paid for through private giving. Up to $257 million was secured by Congress last summer as part of the massive One Big Beautiful Bill Act for the current renovation work.
Trump earlier announced his decision to fire members of the Kennedy Center board of directors. In an official statement released by the Kennedy Center it was remarked that there is “nothing in the Center’s statutes that would prevent a new administration from replacing board members. However, this would be the first time such action has been taken with the Kennedy Center’s board.”
The new board subsequently voted to rename the center the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Located at 2700 F Street, less than 2 miles to the southwest of the White House, the Kennedy Center was criticized at the time of its 1971 opening by Ada Huxtable, the architecture critic for the New York Times, as being a “monumental disaster,” lacking in originality.
Another member of the press extolled the center’s size: “It’s area is equivalent to four football fields, and the structure soars 120 feet high; that’s as high as most 12-story buildings.”
The Trump plans for the Kennedy Center have sparked a wide range of criticism, some coming from members of the Kennedy family. Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK, said in a statement that the President can “change the name, shut the doors, and demolish the buildings.”
But, Schlossberg added, “JFK is kept alive by us now rising up to remove Donald Trump.”
Work on renovating the center is expected to begin this summer, with a rough completion date of mid-2028.
February 10, 2026
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Bureau of Land Management
