Trump Inauguration
This is the reason why the oval office is oval: How big is it?
The Oval Office may be the most recognisable work space in the world. Here’s all you need to know on Trump’s (sort of) new HQ.

As the world watches Donald Trump get sworn in as the President of the United States for the second time in history, vacuum cleaners will be whooshing and feather dusters tickling around the Oval Office in the White House before the business magnate takes his first steps (again) in the most famous workspace on the planet.
It’s been in countless films, TV shows and practically everyone with an electronic device in their pocket will have seen a picture or video of one of the various presidents of the free world sat at the famous desk in the egg-shaped room. And, if you’re like me, at some point in time you’ll have thought: why didn’t they just make it a rectangle?
WATCH LIVE: Trump’s inauguration as President of the United States
Oval Office: the dimensions
How big is the Oval Office in the White House?
Long Axis: 35' 10" (10.9m)
Short Axis: 29' (8.8m)
Height: 18' 6" (5.6m)
Line of Rise: 16' 7" (5.0m) the point at which the ceiling starts to arch
Source: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/what-are-the-dimensions-of-the-oval-office
According to the White House Historical Association, the Oval Office has been going since 1909, when then-president William Howard Taft began work on his new presi-cave. Nathan C. Wyeth was the architect chosen for the job, and he decided to model the new executive space on the other, erm, oval-shaped room in the White House: the blue room.
Careful now, if we go far back enough with the ‘why’ questions we’ll get to who created the universe in the way they did, but that’s the reason - Mr Wyeth simply wanted to copy the other ‘most famous room in the building’.

It turns out that the oval shape is great for everything presidential: the president could walk in a semi-circle and shake hands with the group of people they had arranged to meet, dramatising their position at the ‘tip’ of the oval as everyone else stood around the leader of the US.
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