The Federal Building and Courthouse in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
President Trump, a former builder, signed an executive order Monday intended to promote neo-classical architecture as the official style for federal buildings in Washington, DC., and at new federal courthouses elsewhere.
The order defines classical as including Neoclassical, Georgian, Greek Revival, Gothic and other traditional styles
.It also establishes a new President s Council on Improving Federal Civic Architecture, which is intended to ensure proposed federal buildings are beautiful and reflective of the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the American system of self-government.
The order cites ancient Greece, ancient Rome and language from the constitution of the Italian city of Siena in 1309 as preferred models.
‘Ugly,’ ‘Discordant’: New Executive Order Takes Aim At Modern Architecture
By Elizabeth Blair
December 21, 2020
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.
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