WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Construction is underway at the White House as President Donald Trump looks to add a ballroom to the historic landmark. But among the rubble of the East Wing, some are wondering what’s been lost. President Trump has ordered the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for a massive, $300 million ballroom - something he says previous administrations have been longing for as a way to host larger events. The now-destroyed East Wing was first built in 1902 and was home to formal events, the offices of the First Lady, and the public entrance to the White House. In order to clear ground for the ballroom to be built, the entire structure had to be leveled - something accomplished in only a few days. White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin says though jarring to see, this isn’t the first time the historic home has transformed – with other administrations overhauling the design or renovating the interior. “Thomas Jefferson, he added the colonnade on the east and the west side, James Monroe added the South portico,” said McLaurin, “and we can’t imagine the White House today without any of those things. So it is a living, evolving space.” “They’ve wanted a ballroom for 150 years,” Trump recently said to reporters, “and I’m giving that honor to this wonderful place.” But former Policy Director for First Lady Michelle Obama Krish O’Mara Vignarajah has a different opinion. She once had offices in the East Wing and spent most of her time there; so the demolition of the site is more personal. “Betty Ford once said that if the West Wing is the brain of the nation, the East Wing is the heart,” O’Mara Vignarajah said. “The East Wing has always represented a unique and really critical part of any U.S. presidency, which was the piece that was apolitical. The piece that was sort of soft power.” For her, the main concern is the scale of the work being done, leveling a space that’s full of so much more than just good memories: special, female-focused history and artifacts that can’t be replaced. “I wonder beyond kind of what our eyes can see,” said O’Mara Vignarajah, “the many layers of history and tradition that were housed in the East Wing.”