Press Corps Offices

Press Corps Cube Zoo

The White House Press Corps occupies a section of the West Wing gallery, where they are tightly packed together in cramped cubicles and tiny offices. In December 2005, the White House announced that the Press Briefing Room and Press Corps Offices would be renovated in the coming year.

(adapted from The Washinton Post)

Reporters from the networks, wire services and some of the larger newspapers have desks, small offices and working spaces in [this] room and downstairs in a windowless basement. There is a small coffee room, with a few vending machines and restrooms. The room is, quite literally, a fire hazard, with wires fraying and cameras, cords and equipment piled throughout. It has all the comforts of a 1970s schoolroom: cramped, ergonomically challenged desks and seats for reporters, and no high-speed Internet access.... This means the television, print and radio reporters and crews will be booted from the White House for at least seven months as the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room is modernized.

In July 2007, the offices were reopened for use by the press.

Until 1969, the Press Office space was occupied by the White House Gymnasium and Flower Shop. Around 1961, doors were cut through their walls to allow President Kennedy to pass through them from the swimming pool (now the Press Briefing Room) to the Residence without going outside in his robe. The Flower Shop is now in the White House Basement; a workout room is now in one corner of the third floor.