Draft Executive Order Would Give Trump a New Target: Modern Design

The proposed order, called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” favors classical design for b

February 5, 2020

Should every new government building in the nation’s capital be created in the same style as the White House? A draft of an executive order called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” would establish a classical style, inspired by Greek and Roman architecture, as the default for federal buildings in Washington and many throughout the country, discouraging modern design. “We are a society that is linked to openness of thought, to looking forward with optimism and confidence at a world that is always in the process of becoming,” Thom Mayne, UCLA Department of Architecture & Urban Design Professor Emeritus. “Architecture’s obligation is to maintain this forward thinking stance.”

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington is a more modern design.Credit...Lexey Swall for The New York Times

"WASHINGTON — Should every new government building in the nation’s capital be created in the same style as the White House?

A draft of an executive order called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” would establish a classical style, inspired by Greek and Roman architecture, as the default for federal buildings in Washington and many throughout the country, discouraging modern design.

The order, spearheaded by the National Civic Art Society, a nonprofit group that believes contemporary architecture has “created a built environment that is degraded and dehumanizing,” would rewrite the current rules that govern the design of office buildings, headquarters, and courthouses, or any federal building project contracted through the General Services Administration that costs over $50 million.

“For too long architectural elites and bureaucrats have derided the idea of beauty, blatantly ignored public opinions on style, and have quietly spent taxpayer money constructing ugly, expensive, and inefficient buildings,” Marion Smith, the group’s chairman, wrote in a text message. “This executive order gives voice to the 99 percent — the ordinary American people who do not like what our government has been building.”

But the proposed executive order has already drawn fierce opposition from architects who say it would have a dampening effect on architectural thought and give President Trump broad power to make aesthetic appraisals, something critics say he knows nothing about.

“We are a society that is linked to openness of thought, to looking forward with optimism and confidence at a world that is always in the process of becoming,” Thom Mayne, a California architect and Pritzker Prize winner whose Santa Monica firm has designed a number of buildings for the G.S.A., said in an email. “Architecture’s obligation is to maintain this forward thinking stance.”—Katie Rogers and Robin Pogrebin, Feb. 5, 2020

This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the New York Times website.
Read more about Thom Mayne.

Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.