The Kennedy Center will remained closed as safety assessments continue at the cultural arts center with no definitive reopening date, NBC News reports.
“Our facilities, safety, and security teams are now conducting a detailed emergency egress assessment to determine whether, and under what conditions, the building can safely support occupants and be evacuated while these restrictions remain in place,” the Center’s Executive Director Matt Floca told employees in an email obtained by NBC News. “The main building will remain temporarily closed, pending that determination.”
Floca wrote that the assessment, ordered by Kennedy Center leadership, is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.
The main building of the Kennedy Center has been closed since Sept. 15, after the Center’s board voted to close for renovations. In court filings, Floca explained the closure would be reconsidered on a week-by-week basis, depending on the status of the assessment.
Hundreds of people formed a human chain around the Kennedy Center Friday evening in protest of its closing and threats by the Trump administration to demolish the memorial to President John F. Kennedy. News4’s Jackie Bensen reports.
It comes as a separate evaluation completed over the past three months by engineering firm Walter P Moore found significant corrosion and water damage on most of the exterior “soffit panels” that make up the Kennedy Center’s overhang. The documents, obtained by NBC News, call for “immediate” fixes to prevent further damage to the Center’s structure.
The Walter P Moore firm suggested replacing the entire soffit panel system — each individual panel weighing more than 2,000 pounds — with what they call “a more durable solution.” They also recommend replacing the roof’s drainage system and improve the enclosure in-between the roof and the panels, along with the roof deck itself.
The firm suggested keeping the plaza area outside the front of the Kennedy Center closed to the public. “Because the soffit is located 60 feet above areas regularly occupied by the public, continued deterioration of the panels and their support system presents a falling object hazard and life-safety concern,” the report states.
“Walter P Moore recommends the area under and adjacent to the soffit panels be closed to the public until repairs or further evaluation is performed,” according to the assessment.
While there is no programming currently scheduled for any of the theaters inside the main building of the Kennedy Center, events continue inside a physically separate, newer, and much smaller building on the Kennedy Center’s campus. There are free events scheduled between Thursday and Sunday each week over at that building, called “The REACH.”
On the legal front, the court battle over the naming of the Center — and the more closure of the center — continue, with Judge Christopher Cooper asking for weekly updates from the Trump administration on the repairs.
