Demolition crews have begun tearing down parts of the White House's fabled East Wing to make way for Donald Trump's ballroom.
The US president previously said the project — tipped to cost more than $US250 million ($383 million) — wouldn't "interfere" with the building's existing structure.
But on Monday, local time, large construction equipment was spotted ripping off chunks of the building's facade.
It is not the first time the White House has undergone significant changes.
What are Trump's ballroom plans?
Mr Trump announced on Monday, local time, that ground had been broken on the project after US media began circulating images of the demolition.
He said the ballroom would be "completely separate" from the White House itself, but clarified the East Wing would be "fully modernised" as part of the renovations.
Future parties will kick off with cocktails in the revamped wing before guests are ushered into what Mr Trump says will be the "finest" ballroom in the country.
It will boast views of the Washington Monument and space for up to 999 people.
The US president said in July that he would fund the project along with "many generous patriots".
"It won't interfere with the current building," Mr Trump said at the time.
"It will be near it, but not touching it. And pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of. It's my favourite."
Why is a ballroom being built?
The current East Wing was built in 1942 during Franklin D Roosevelt's administration, erected on top of a bunker built for the president's use in emergency situations.
The complex has since housed the first lady's offices, a theatre and a visitor's entrance that welcomes foreign dignitaries.
But it sometimes struggles to hold large numbers of employees, visitors and guests, with several White House state dinners instead held in tents on the South Lawn.
Mr Trump is building a new ballroom to address the lack of space.
It is not the first change Mr Trump has made to the White House.
Midway through this year, he replaced the Rose Garden's iconic rectangular lawn with a stone patio.
Over the past eight months, he has also applied what he described as "Trump touches" to the Oval Office, adding gold trimmings and trophies throughout the room.
Has the White House been changed much before?
Yes, "many, many times", according to the White House Historical Association.
The changes include four major reconstructions and renovations, the dates of which are emblazoned on a marker embedded in the building's entrance hall.
The first date — 1792 — is when the cornerstone was laid and construction began on the White House.
In 1817, the landmark was rebuilt after the British burned it to the exterior walls three years earlier in the Capture of Washington.
Almost a century later, in 1902, Theodore Roosevelt modernised the White House and established the West Wing as the new executive office space for the president and staff.
But by the early 1950s, the building was on the brink of collapse after 150 years of rushed renovations, wartime reconstruction, an added third floor and flimsy foundations.
In fact, some said it was only standing from "force of habit".
The Depression and World War II had only worsened the neglect, with Harry Truman joking in a letter to his wife that ghosts inhabited the house because of all of its strange popping and creaking noises.
"The damned place is haunted, sure as shootin," Harry Truman wrote.
In 1946, Mr Truman was taking a bath on the second floor when a valet walked in and the floor buckled.
He would later joke about his tub plummeting onto the Daughters of the American Revolution tea occurring below while he was "wearing nothing more than his reading glasses".
The last straw came in 1948 when the leg of his daughter Margaret's piano crashed through a sitting room floor and the ceiling below, with investigators later discovering a split beam beneath it.
In 1952, the White House was "completely gutted" and rebuilt from the inside.
Are there restrictions on how much the White House can change?
The White House was designated a historic site in 1960.
Therefore, as a national historic landmark in the care of the National Park Service, extensive regulations govern any "significant changes", according to the White House Historical Association.
However, the first family still has quite a bit of say over the White House's appearance — particularly the living quarters.
Every four years, Congress appropriates money for the "care, repair, refurnishing and maintenance" of the mansion and its grounds.
But if the first family wants to change any of the historic guest suites or public spaces on the ground and first floors, they must consult the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, established by Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
As for the colour of the White House, this has been protected by "a matter of tradition rather than law" ever since Teddy Roosevelt made the name official in a 1901 letter.
