Oval Office
The Oval Office is the office of the President of the United States of America . It is located in the west wing of the White House and takes its name from the oval shape of the room. Thanks to the oval shape, you can look everyone involved in the eye during meetings and still have a head end where the president can sit.
Dimensions
The Oval Office measures 10.9 meters in the longitudinal and 8.8 meters in the transverse axis and has a ceiling height of 5.6 meters. The view to the south is made possible through three large windows behind the presidential desk. There is a fireplace on the north side of the room.
The east door of the Oval Office leads to the White House rose garden . Behind the west door are the President's private kitchen and study. To the northwest you can leave the Oval Office in the direction of the main corridor of the west wing. To the north-east is the President's personal secretariat, behind which the Cabinet Room is located.
Interior decoration
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Usually the interior of the Oval Office changes with every new government; Carpet, curtains, paintings and furniture are exchanged. When a new president takes office, he picks a carpet from a previous government until his own design is made. The design of the room is mainly coordinated by the first lady and financed by donations.
A since 1961 by almost all presidents (with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson , Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford used) desk is called " Resolute Desk ", since it is made of that wood, which after the dismantling of the British polar research ship HMS Resolute in 1879 remained. The desk was a thank you present from Queen Victoria to the United States: in 1855, American whalers had recovered the Resolute stuck in the polar ice, and the ship had been returned to the British Crown after its repair.
history
The first Oval Office of the White House was built in 1909 during the Taft administration . The architect Nathan C. Wyeth designed it on his behalf. Taft had designed the Oval Office as the geographical center of his work. By positioning the room in the center of the west wing, he felt that he was closer to the day-to-day business of his presidency than his predecessors.
In 1929 it was destroyed in a fire. After that, however, it was not returned to its former state, but rather rebuilt following a request by then President Herbert C. Hoover.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt became US President in 1933, this central location of the room bothered him; the Oval Office had no windows, only a skylight. In 1934 Roosevelt had the Oval Office relocated to the southeast corner of the west wing, which he hoped would have several other advantages: It should enable the President to move between the west wing and the central area of the White House without the direct scope of the employees in the west wing to cross. This was important to Roosevelt as he found it uncomfortable to be seen in his wheelchair. Roosevelt's new office was designed by architect Eric Gugler.
Over the years the Oval Office has become a symbol of the US presidency, not least because the publicly perceived character of the room as a center of power has been continuously reinforced by the influence of the mass media - pictures of a little John F. Kennedy Jr. in his office Father, one of Richard Nixon's telephone conversations with astronauts after their mission, Ronald Reagan's speech on the occasion of the Challenger disaster or the speech by George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 left lasting impressions on the masses.
Since 1934 the Oval Office has had four different floors. The first was made of cork. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, was a keen golfer and destroyed the ground with the spikes of his golf shoes. In the 1960s, President Johnson had linoleum installed , which President Reagan did not like and in 1982 had to give way to a parquet floor made of pine and oak in a wagon wheel pattern. Finally, under George W. Bush , the floor was renewed again in August 2005, but it was left with almost the same pattern as under Reagan.
The oval office in culture
In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels "Office Oval" is alluded to by the ruler of the city of Ankh-Morpork , Lord Vetinari in "Rectangular Office" ( "Oblong Office" in the original English) does its government.
In the film Hello, Mr. President (original title The American President ), President Andrew Sheperd (played by Michael Douglas) describes the Oval Office as a "leisure room" (in English as "Rec Room", which is the short form for Recreation Room) is).
In the US series The West Wing by Aaron Sorkin , the Oval Office plays exactly the role described, it serves as the power, planning and representative center of the fictional US presidency of Josiah "Jed" Bartlet ( Martin Sheen ).
In the film The Legacy of the Secret Book (original title National Treasure: Book of Secrets ) the Oval Office can be seen when Benjamin Franklin Gates aka Nicolas Cage examines the "Resolute Desk" to find a clue that leads him to the city of gold should lead.
Parts of the White House are shown in the first few minutes of The Sentinel . Among other things, the oval office can be seen.
In the action thriller White House Down , the fictional African American President James W. Sawyer is knocked unconscious in the Oval Office and the room is almost completely destroyed by the protagonist of the film with a heavy SUV and a minigun .
In an episode of the British science fiction series Doctor Who , the main character The Doctor lands his space and time machine TARDIS in the Oval Office in 1969 to warn the President of the United States, Richard Nixon , of impending danger.
In the US series House of Cards and Designated Survivor , which are produced by Netflix , the Oval Office appears in most of the episodes and is often the central location of the action.
In the political satire The President Show , "President Trump" broadcasts straight from the Oval Office to avoid the "lying press".
Web links
- White House Museum online tour
- Photos of the Oval Office under various presidents , on the New York Times website
Coordinates: 38 ° 53 '50.5 " N , 77 ° 2' 14.7" W.