Biden Just Purged 4 On The Arts Panel That Advises Congress On Public Architecture
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design alumna Billie Tsien '77 (M.Arch) was selected to design the Obama Presidential Library in Chicago alongside her husband, Tod Williams. On May 25, 2021, President Biden announced his intention to appoint four new members to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the body that oversees design and architecture of federal buildings in Washington, D.C., including architect Billie Tsien (M.Arch. '77).
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design alumna Billie Tsien '77 "President Biden announced his intention Tuesday afternoon to appoint four new members to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the body that oversees design and architecture of federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Their positions are appointed by the president and do not need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The four intended appointees are meant to replace four commissioners who had been installed by former President Donald Trump, some of whom helped to shape a controversial executive order intended to promote neoclassical architecture as the official style for federal buildings in Washington and at new federal courthouses elsewhere.
A White House official told NPR: "President Biden is proud to nominate this extremely qualified and well-respected group of professionals to the Commission on Fine Arts. They will bring to the commission a diversity of background and experience, as well as a range of aesthetic viewpoints."
The four are Peter Cook, a principal at HGA Architects whose past projects include the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture; Hazel Ruth Edwards, a professor and chair of Howard University's Department of Architecture; Justin Garrett Moore, the inaugural program officer of the Humanities in Place program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and Billie Tsien, a partner at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, whose firm designed the Barack Obama Presidential Center. " — Elizabeth Blair, May 25, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the NPR website.
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