Trump orders new government buildings must be beautiful
President Donald Trump has passed an executive order stating new US government buildings must be beautiful just one month before Joe Biden takes office.
The order, titled Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, was passed on Monday 21 December 2020. President-elect Biden will be sworn in on 21 January 2021.
Classical architecture to be encouraged
Trump s order stipulates that new buildings commissioned for the federal government must be beautiful and names classical and traditional architecture as the preferred style, but stops short of banning other styles, such as brutalism. Encouraging classical and traditional architecture does not exclude using most other styles of architecture, where appropriate, reads the order.
Updated at 12:30pm ET
Back in February, President Trump set the architectural world reeling with a call for traditional designs for new federal buildings. He proposed an executive order, called Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, which took an out-with-the-new, in-with-the-old approach to architecture, calling modern federal buildings constructed over the last five decades undistinguished, uninspiring and just plain ugly.
That proposed order is now a reality. Retitled Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, it begins with a paean to beautiful public architecture, before moving on to a litany of disapproval aimed at modernist federal buildings.
It s true that modernism abounds in D.C. Standing on a street corner near the National Mall, there s actually a mishmash of architectural styles. Let s talk about three of them: In the distance, the gleaming white pillars of the U.S. Capitol dome, the kind of classical architecture the president s order favors. Close
British writer Caroline Criado Perez wrote a book claiming that cities haven t been designed to suit the lives of women, sparking debate amongst readers. I agree with this completely, said Sim. Last week the design for the longest cycling bridge in Europe was revealed. While it was hailed a triumph, as a woman all I could think of were the evenings I would be cycling home alone and the idea of this bridge scared me. Come on! replied Architecte Urbaniste. This whole man versus woman urban design discussion is missing the point. Most architecture is designed by teams of people containing both men and women. I ve seen groups of women designing completely unliveable urbanism too.