Ivanka Trump
speaker
1,538 appearances
13 recordings
8 series
first heard Jul 2024
last heard 10 Jun
Ivanka Trump’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 12 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 8.
Appearances
And you mentioned the Brooklyn Bridge, but growing up in New York, that was as much a part of the architectural story and tapestry of that skyline as any building that's seen in it.
Well, some of the most recent projects I worked on prior to government service were the old post office building and almost simultaneously Trump Doral in Miami. So these were both two just massive undertakings, both redevelopments, which in a lot of cases, having worked on ground-up construction, redevelopment projects are...
In a lot of ways, much more complicated because you have existing attributes, but also a lot of limitations you have to work within, especially when you're repurposing a use. So this, the old post office building on Pennsylvania Avenue.
It's unbelievable. So this was a Romanesque revival building built in the 1890s on America's Main Street to symbolize American grandeur. And at the time, there were post offices being built in this style across the country, but this being really the defining one.
Still to this day, the tallest habitable structure in Washington, the tallest structure being the monument, the nation's only vertical park, which is that clock tower. But you've got these thick granite walls, those carved granite turrets everywhere. Just an unbelievable building. You've got this massive atrium that runs through the whole center of it that is topped with glass.
So having the opportunity to spearhead a project like that was so exciting. And actually, it was my first renovation project, so... I came to it with a tremendous amount of energy, vigor and humility about how to do it properly, ensuring I had all the right people. We had countless federal and local government agencies that would oversee every single decision we made.
But in advance of even having the opportunity to do it, there was a close to two-year request for proposal, like a process that was put out by the General Services Administration. So it was this really arduous government procurement process. that we were competing against so many different people for the opportunity, which a lot of people said it was a gigantic waste of time.
But I looked at that, and I think so did a lot of the other bidders, and say it's worth trying to put the best vision forward.
I fell in love, yeah.
So I think the greatest asset was already there. the exterior of the building, which we meticulously restored. And any addition to it had to be done sort of very gently in terms of any signage additions. And the interior spaces were completely dilapidated. It had been a post office. Then it was used for a really rundown food court and government office spaces.
It was actually losing $6 million a year. When we got the concession to build it and when we won and became one of, I think, a great example of public-private partnerships working together. But I think the biggest challenge in having such a radical use conversion is... just how you lay it out.
So the amount of time I would get on that Acela twice a week, three times a week to spend day trips down in Washington, and we would walk every single inch of the building, laying out the floor plans, debating over the configuration of a room. There were almost 300 rooms and there were almost 300 layouts. So nothing could be repeated.
Whereas when you're building from scratch, you have a box and you decide where you want to add things. you know, potential elements and you kind of can stack the floor plan all the way up. But when you're working within a building like this, every single room was different. You see the setback. So the setback then required you to move the plumbing. So there was no, it was really a labor of love.
And to do something like this, and that's why I think renovation, we had it with Doral as well. It was $700,000. rooms over 650 acres of property. And so every single unit was very different and complicated. Not as complicated in some ways. The scale of it was so massive, but not as complicated as the old post office. But it required a level of precision. And I think in real estate, you have a
um and a lot of people who are in the business of sort of acquiring and flipping so it's more financial engineering than it is building and they don't spend the time sort of sweating these details that make something great and make something functional and you feel it in the end result um But I mean, blood, sweat, tears, years of my life for those projects. And it was worth it.
I enjoyed almost every minute of it.
Um, when, when proposals are put forth by an architect and, and really just the plan is accepted without, and in the case of a renovation, like if you're not walking those rooms, the number of times a beautifully laid out room was on a blueprint and then I'd go to Washington and I'd walk that floor and I'd realize that there was a column that ran right up through the middle of the space where, you know, the bed was supposed to be, or the toilet was supposed to be, or,
or the shower. So there's a lot of things that are missed when you do something conceptually without sort of rooting it in the actual structure. And that's why I think even with ground-up construction as well, people who aren't constantly on their job sites, constantly walking the projects, there's just a lot that's missed.
And you have to love it in order to do that.
Because for the most part, you can probably get 90, maybe even 95% of the end result, unless something has terribly gone awry by not caring with that level of almost like maniacal precision. But you'll notice that 10% for the rest of your life. So I think... I think that extra effort, that passion, I think that's what separates good from great.
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