Donald Trump ordered on Monday that all new federal buildings in the U.S. should be “beautiful,” in the long-awaited executive order that drove out architectural modernity but stopped demanding that all such projects be in the classical style.
Paul Goldberg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic, said the order was “largely symbolic” and “just a chance.” [for Trump] To lob another grenade as you exit the door.
When the draft order first came out in February, critics reacted terribly to his promise to “revitalize federal buildings” by forcing the return of “classical architectural style”.
Both the American Institute of Architects and the National Trust for Historical Preservation objected, while Goldberger told the Guardian that the problem was “not with classical architecture per se,” but that “the official style order is not entirely consistent with 21st century liberalism.” Democracy ”.
Ten months later, and with Trump’s term in office coming to an end, the order came to an end.
His writings include examples of classical U.S. public architecture, including “Second Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, and Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in New York City.”
“In Washington, DC,” he adds, “classical buildings such as the White House, the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the Treasury Department and the Lincoln Memorial have become symbols of our system of government.”
It also booms down to buildings erected since the 1950s, “from obscure designers to designs. [the General Services Administration] Now publicly admits to being appealing to many.
“Promoting classical and traditional architecture is not excluded from using other styles of architecture where appropriate.” “However, care must be taken to ensure that the design of all federal buildings respects the general public for the beauty and visual embodiment of American ideals.”
G.S.A. The order also establishes a “President’s Council on Federal Civic Architecture Reform”, saying the designs must take input from the public and employees, meaning the police did not completely ban any federal project, which varies from the chosen architecture … This order, including cruel or deconstructive architecture or any design derived from or related to this type of architecture. ”
Given his career in real estate development, marked by a love of gold, gilt, black marble, and Baroque extravagance, Trump’s alleged love of classicism is attracting criticism, not to mention his brutal treatment of beloved old buildings.
Some federal projects have been launched in the neoclassical style, but the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20 could spell the end of Trump’s attempt to impose “beautiful” buildings by order.
Monday, Goldberger Wrote on Twitter: “This is weakened by the original proposal and in any case it is largely symbolic, a chance to lubricate another grenade as it goes out the door. I don’t think it means much. And unlike last minute apologies, the next administration reduced its impact. Could be, or vice versa. “
Before the order passed, Dina Titus, a Democratic member of Congress from Nevada, introduced legislation to the GSA to block blocked modernist formations.
“Imposing an architectural style of choice for federal facilities is contrary to our country’s democratic traditions,” Titus said in a letter to GSA administrator Emily Murphy, in a report by Bloomberg News.
“It’s even worse for Washington D.C. to try to enforce this misleading order by blocking Congress and decades of GSA policy and decades of practice without any public notice or hearing.”
