NBC “Inside the Obama White House”

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Colton and others note that NBC is showing “Inside the Obama White House” on Tuesday and Wednesday this week at 9 PM Eastern. Brian Williams: “We will show aspects of life in the White House — the Obama White House — that no one on the outside has ever seen before.” We’ll be the judge of that, Brian. From the preview videos, he seems to regard Bo as a “get.”

Also from the preview, we do see the Palm Room, Chief of Staff Office, and parts of the East Wing. Here’s hoping we see the master bedroom and bath, girls’ bedrooms, and a brief tour of the basement and West Wing ground floor. If only these people would consult us beforehand….

33 thoughts on “NBC “Inside the Obama White House””

  1. Well here’s something of an insight into some hidden WH spaces… I was reading a NYT article about the White House Aide in charge of dismantling GM and found this interesting little note about the architecture of the White House… apparently a tunnel connects WH and Treasury?

    From the article:

    “Several times a day he speed-walks to Treasury, taking a shortcut through the tunnel under the colonnade, near the kitchens. The other day he talked about how sharply perceptions of the industry’s future changed after Mr. Obama’s election.”

    The whole article:

    Do you know any more about this?

  2. Matt, thanks for sharing that article. I can’t believe they would publish that in the article, glad they did though =)
    I just looked at some preview videos about the whole NBC’s inside Obama’s White House, and looking at the footage, wow! Can’t wait to record this, and I must say I really like how they used steady cams, espesially the shot of Brian Williams speaking and walking with the President all the way through the colonade from the residence to the Oval Office. Does it appear that there is a small step or ramp on the colonade where it meets up in thr corner?

  3. FDR had the tunnel built, in the late 1930s or in 1940. It leads to an old vault beneath the Treasury Building. Access now is from the East Wing. Originally, it was accessible only from outside the WH on the grounds.

    FDR then had the East Wing built in the 1940s, and this tunnel also became access to what we now know as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center.

    I am not sure about this reference to “the tunnel under the colonnade, near the kitchens”. I don’t even think there is a colonnade — at least an outdoor one — leading to the East Wing. I don’t think the tunnel to Treasury goes farther west than beneath the East Wing.

  4. Yes, I’ve read about the tunnel in several news stories at various times, but I’ve never seen specifics on where the entrance to it is. Nor have I ever seen it depicted in diagrams or photos. Since it was built as part of an escape route during WW2, I think it’s right to say it probably starts in the basement of the East Wing.

  12. Sorry, anonymous was me. Just got a new MacBook Pro and all my settings weren’t switched over.

  15. • Senior advisor door opens to Chief of Staff secretary office area.

    • Axelrod office is smaller with separate room for secretary.

    • Senior adviser next to cheif of staff office also has separate office for secretary.

  18. all I got to say is WOW, I was glued to my TV. watching every second of it, and its so busy. From the angles of the camera following Obama, to the hallways, I got disorientated several times trying to figure out where they were standing and going from one room to another. I know every square inch of the Residence, but not every inch of th West Wing. Thank you, MSNBC for this Obama White House Tour.

  20. I’m glad I recorded both episodes. I have the classic VCR to record shows, so mine is on VHS…which I can always transfer to a DVD. I’m sure we saw it, but as NBC pu it, an encore presintation about Inside the Obama White House this Friday at 8 eastern, 7 central.
    After this Great NBC Special, I think it’s time for the members here at the WHM site to be part of our own administration… Meaning there is a lot of work to be done with new photos to be placed on here and new information, Derek is considered the President of this great site, and as loyal members just like in an administration, it’s time we step it up & work with Derek and advise him of what would be best to place on the WHM site. Lets not get overwelmed with it because it can get out of hand, lets take it at a good steady pace and work together to get the best for this site. Derek, your the Commander In Chief of this site, what would you like from us and how can we help you…?

  21. Derek

    In regarding to the tunnel, I think the staircase on the grounds near the East Wing that i showed you a few months back. That may have somthing to do with it.

    James

    P.S – I like that Idea Steve (Above)

  22. I ‘ve noticed in several places in the West Wing, including the VP’s office, and the Presidents dining room off the oval, what look to be white radiator covers. Always in the exterior walls, they arrear in photos going back to Carter .

    Does the West wing still have radiators in this day and age? You only see them in some offices, so what gives ?

    In addition, did anyone catch the first night, how Brian was walking the ground floor trying to find the Blue room ? The President had to say”man, thats up that way” motioning to the stair case to the first floor.

    Brian could use more time on this site so not to get lost !

  24. I believe the small, window-less room across the side hall from that mens rest room is the ladies rest room.

  25. Rod/Derek – the pic of Obama walking into the Office of Staff Secretary…you both say second floor, however the office of the staff secretary is on the ground floor of the White House.

  26. Seth: It depends upon whom you choose to believe. I never said that was the Staff Secretary’s office. The photo is taken in a second floor office — you can tell from the size of (and actual presence of) the windows. Only the Sit Room offices have windows on the ground floor, as I recall.

    Job assignments for West Wing offices change frequently. Hillary Clinton and Karl Rove used the same office but had different titles. Now, apparently, Valerie Jarrett is using it. George Stephanopoulos occupied what now is David Axelrod’s, after he gave up the Press Secretary’s traditional office, even though he never was the President’s Press Secretary.

    As for the office in the photo, if the Washington Post knows what it is talking about, that office now is occupied by Patrick Gaspard, who has the same title as Rove had, before he moved downstairs to be a deputy chief of staff.

  27. I don’t know. Pete Souza’s caption says it is the Staff Secretary’s Office, which the WaPo article on Obama’s West Wing says is on the ground floor. Presumably it’s among the offices north of the ground floor lobby, which have west-facing windows. Based on that, I’ve removed it from the WW second floor page.

  28. Rod, I understand that offices move around and know that different people occupy them for different uses. I also know that Pete Souza probably has a better grasp than we do on what he is taking pictures of and he labled it as the staff secretary’s office.

    Look at how deeply inset the windows are vs. the Nixon era picture…I don’t recall seeing that in any of the other second floor pictures. The windows in the Souza pic are typical of those in a basement because you have cinder block walls rather than just framed.

    I’m pretty sure Pete Souza just gave us another piece to the puzzle…this picture shows an office on the northwest ground floor wall of the White House.

  30. Any way we can contact Pete Souza by e mail? Why not find out the true answer as to what room and it’s location by going to the source itself.

  31. Those are old photos of the ground floor sit room. Things change . . . often. Bottom line seems to be that the photo is the second floor.

  33. I’m gonna do a mea culpa about that WH photo — http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2434/3583575854_8d033d0b64.jpg?v=0 — which I identified as being a West Wing second floor office. The gray haired woman in the middle of that photo is Staff Secretary Lisa Brown (see http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/28/us/politics/topics_lisabrown_190.jpg ). So, if, as the WashPost maintains, the Staff Secretary’s office is in the basement of the West Wing, then the photo is, indeed, of a windowed basement office, probably near the northwest corner of that floor, north of the main basement entrance. I think Seth had it right when he questioned me on placing that photo as one of a second floor office.

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