The Secret Service wants to build a fake White House

2015-03-18T18:19:00-04:00

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Joseph P. Clancy, the director of the Secret Service, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to give him money to build a detailed replica of the White House to aid in training officers and agents to protect the real thing. Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is the location of a 500-acre Secret Service training site in the verdant terrain of southern Maryland.

File this one under duplitecture (noun: an intentional, functioning copy of a pre-existing, and often familiar, piece of architecture).

After garnering criticism following a series of – erm – security lapses (here's a timeline), the Secret Service has requested $8 million to construct a duplicate White House in order to train their agents to better protect the real one (and its rather important occupants). According to Mr. Clancy, “It’s important to have a true replica of what the White House is so we can do a better job of this integrated training between our uniform division officers, our agents and our tactical teams."

No word on if the fake White House will offer DUI classes...

Incidentally, this isn't the first duplitecture White House. In their Fake for Real series, NextNature posted about a replica version of the famous residence built by the Chinese entrepreneur Huang Qiaoling. Apparently, he wanted to be able meet business associates in the "Oval Office."

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The Secret Service wants to build a fake White House