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. The oval shape can look at meetings all participants in the eye and gets nevertheless a head end at which the President may 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 on. The view to the south is made possible by three large windows behind the President desk. There is a fireplace on the north side of the room.

The eastern door of the Oval Office into the Rose Garden of the White House. Are the private kitchen and the office of the President behind the western door. To the northwest, you can leave the Oval Office towards the main corridor of the west wing. In the northeast, the personal secretary of the President endorses, behind which the Cabinet Room is located.

Interior

The interior of the Oval Office usually changes with each new government; Carpet, curtains, paintings and furniture to be replaced. When a new president takes office, he or she selects a carpet from a previous government, until his own design is made ​​. The decoration of the room is mainly coordinated by the First Lady and funded by donations.

A since 1961 by almost all the presidents ( with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford) used desk is called " Resolute Desk", since it is made of same wood after removing the British polar research ship HMS Resolute in 1879 was left. The desk was a thank you gift of Queen Victoria to the United States: In 1855, American whalers had recovered the polar ice stuck in Resolute, and the ship was returned after repair of the British Crown.

History

The first Oval Office of the White House was built in 1909 during the Taft administration. In whose behalf it was designed by the architect Nathan C. Wyeth. Taft had conceived as a geographical center of his work the Oval Office. The positioning of the space in the center of the West Wing, he felt involved closer to the everyday business of his presidency compared to his predecessors.

In 1929 it was destroyed by fire. After that, it was not moved in the former state, but rebuilt by exposure of the then President Herbert C. Hoover.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt became U.S. President in 1933, this central location the room bothered him, however; the Oval Office had no window, only a skylight. Roosevelt had the Oval Office in 1934 relocate to the southeastern corner of the west wing, of which he has multiple other benefits promised: It should allow the President to move between the west wing and the central region of the White House, without the direct perception of the area of ​​staff in the West Wing to cross. This was Roosevelt important because he felt it was uncomfortable to be seen in his wheelchair. Roosevelt was designed by architect Eric Gugler new office.

Over the years, the Oval Office has become a symbol of the U.S. presidential, not least the fact that the public perceived character of the room was confirmed as a center of power continuously through the influence of the mass media - images of a small John F. Kennedy Jr. in the office of his father, a Richard Nixon left in a telephone conversation with astronauts after their mission, Ronald Reagan's speech at the Challenger disaster or the speech by George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 lasting impressions in the crowd.

Since 1934, the Oval Office had four different floors. The first was made ​​of cork. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, however, was an avid golfer and damaged the floor with his spikes golf shoes. President Johnson was laid in the 1960s linoleum that President Reagan did not like again and 1982 a parquet floor of pine and oak had to give in Wagenradmuster. Under George W. Bush finally the floor was renewed again in August 2005, but left at almost the same pattern as the Reagan administration.

The Oval Office in the culture

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels alluded to the "Oval Office " 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 movie The American President ( Original title The American President ) President Andrew Shepherd the Oval Office as a " free period " (denoted (played by Michael Douglas ) in English as " Rec Room ", which is short for Recreation Room, roughly recreational space is ).

In the U.S. series The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin of the Oval Office just plays the role described, it serves as a power, planning and representative center of the fictional U.S. presidential Josiah " Jed " Bartlet ( Martin Sheen ).

In the film National Treasure: Book of Secrets ( original title National Treasure: Book of Secrets ) is the oval to see Office, as Benjamin Franklin Gates aka Nicolas Cage the " Resolute Desk" examined in order to find a note that made ​​it to the city of gold should lead.

In the first minutes of the movie The Sentinel parts of the White House will be shown. Among other things, the Oval Office is to be seen.

In the action thriller White House Down the fictional African-American president James W. Sawyer gets knocked out in the Oval Office and later in the room is almost completely destroyed by the protagonists of the film with a heavy SUV and a minigun.

In an episode of the British science fiction series Doctor Who, the main character of 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 from imminent danger.

An American -joke names the Oval Office since the affair by Bill Clinton with the intern Monica Lewinsky Oral Office.