West Wing

A year later, in 1902, First Lady Edith Roosevelt hired McKim, Mead & White to separate the living quarters from the offices, to enlarge and modernize the public rooms, to re-do the landscaping, and to redecorate the interior.

Caused either by a faulty or blocked chimney flue or defective wiring, the fire began in the attic of the building where an estimated 200,000 government pamphlets were stored.

Dissatisfied with the size and layout of President Hoover's West Wing, he engaged New York architect Eric Gugler to redesign it in 1933.

To create additional space without increasing the apparent size of the building, Gugler excavated a full basement, added a set of subterranean offices under the adjacent lawn,[12] and built an unobtrusive "penthouse" story.

[9] The new office's location gave presidents greater privacy, allowing them to slip back and forth between the Executive Residence and the West Wing without being in full view of the staff.

[2] As the size of the president's staff grew over the latter half of the 20th century, the West Wing generally came to be seen as too small for its modern governmental functions.

However, during the first term of George W. Bush, an audio-visual cabinet was placed on the opposite wall providing secure audio and visual conference capabilities across the hall from the Oval Office.

The West Wing ground floor is also the site of a small restaurant operated by the Presidential Food Service and staffed by Naval culinary specialists and called the White House Mess.