A federal judge issued an order Thursday forbidding the demolition of the Kennedy Center’s main building, moving to prevent a repeat of President Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing last fall.
Judge Christopher Cooper issued his order hours after photos emerged of Mr. Trump on Air Force One looking at a poster that seemed to read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.”
The judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said he wanted to “avoid any confusion”: Tearing down the historic building without permission was not allowed.
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He said the center must provide 30 days’ notice before any demolition or other changes to the current renovation plans.
The order was handed down after an intense few days that began with the center’s board voting to shut down the center for two years for a full renovation. The board is led by Mr. Trump and stocked with his loyalists.
Mr. Trump declared that the center would shut down “immediately.” The doors closed to the public and fencing went up around the facility, which center officials now maintain is a temporary safety closure rather than the start of renovations.
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Rep. Joyce Beatty, the Ohio Democrat who has twice defeated Mr. Trump’s plans to add his name to the building in court, said the entire situation is suspicious.
She said the shifting explanations are an attempt to evade liability for defying Judge Cooper’s prior ruling, which blocked an earlier board shutdown vote. Judge Cooper had said that if the board voted again to shut down the center, it would need to satisfy the conditions set out in his prior order before proceeding.
That did not happen.
“The Trump administration would rather defy the court than admit they broke the law by closing the Kennedy Center,” the congresswoman said in a statement Thursday. “The Kennedy Center is a sacred, living memorial to President Kennedy, not collateral damage in placating Trump’s ego.”
In her court filings, she pointed to photos on social media showing Mr. Trump on Air Force One seemingly studying a poster about the demolition of the center.
She said the image was particularly concerning given that Mr. Trump had the White House East Wing razed last fall without congressional permission.
A federal judge has ruled that the demolition was likely illegal, but the Supreme Court allowed Mr. Trump to continue construction of his new ballroom at the site of the old East Wing, ruling 5-4 that the challengers likely lacked standing to sue. The court did not explicitly rule on the legality of the demolition.
The Kennedy Center closed Tuesday, hours after the board voted for the two-year shutdown.
Mr. Trump has said it is impractical to try to keep one of the center’s two large theaters open while refurbishing the other.
Ms. Beatty, an ex officio member of the center’s board, said she was initially told that the closure was the result of a mistaken fire alarm.
On Wednesday morning, one of her attorneys visited the premises and was told the center was shut down indefinitely.
Matt Floca, the center’s executive director, then sent an email to center staff just before 5 p.m. — hours after the closure — saying he shuttered the building to the public because of emergency safety risks. He said it was not related to the shutdown vote hours earlier.
“I came to the conclusion that acute risks to public safety resulting from continued structural deterioration at the center necessitated a temporary closure of most public spaces in the main building of the center to general public access,” he said.
He called it a “temporary closure” that would allow time to assess the risks. He said he would decide each week whether to keep it closed.
Ms. Beatty noted the odd timing, pointing out that no emergency risks were mentioned during the board meeting just hours earlier.
She also said Thursday that the nature of the closure — moving the gift shop and shuttle buses to another building on the site — does not sound like a weeklong pause.
“One does not relocate retail and transit operations or install barricades (which seemingly would have needed to be acquired in advance) for a one-week inspection. These measures are consistent with an open-ended shutdown,” her attorneys said in a new legal filing.
Mr. Floca said issues with the structure have been known for years, but heavy rains accelerated the deterioration.
The structural damage included a section of the ceiling in the grand foyer that collapsed to the ground earlier this month. The center was closed at the time, but officials have said that if people had been in the foyer, they could have been killed by that falling chunk.
Mr. Floca said a new assessment shows at least seven additional ceiling spots from water damage.
On the exterior of the building, meanwhile, 46 of the 278 soffit panels show severe corrosion, and 93 show moderate corrosion.
The dispute over the closure is tied to a parallel battle over the center’s name.
Mr. Trump has insisted that no renovations can be performed without his name being added to the building, which, by law, is a memorial to former President John F. Kennedy.
Judge Cooper has now sided with Ms. Beatty twice in blocking Mr. Trump’s name.
The first time, he had the name taken down from the facade.
The center’s board then said it would add Mr. Trump’s name to the plaza, which it said would not conflict with the law that names the building after Kennedy.
Judge Cooper this week said that the idea was also likely illegal.
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