'Respect architectural heritage': Trump orders new federal buildings must be 'beautiful'

Outgoing US President Donald Trump on December 21 issued an executive order stating that future federal buildings across the country must be “beautiful”. The order, titled “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture”, states that too many federal buildings reflected “brutalist” designs of the last century. Now, while the new order will create a new council to advise the president on future federal buildings, Trump has said that the new structures should preferably be built in a classical Greek, Roman or similar style. 

The order read, “New federal building designs should, like America's beloved landmark buildings, uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, command respect from the general public, and, as appropriate, respect the architectural heritage of a region”. 

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According to the executive order, Trump, who only has a few weeks left in the office, said that the federal building in Washington DC in recent times have created a “discordant mixture of classical and modernist designs”. He said that with some exceptions, the government had “largely stopped building beautiful buildings”. Further, Trump said that the use of classical and other traditional architecture “should be encouraged instead of discouraged”. 

“They (Federal buildings) should also be visually identifiable as civic buildings and, as appropriate, respect regional architectural heritage. Architecture — with particular regard for traditional and classical architecture — that meets the criteria set forth in this subsection is the preferred architecture for applicable Federal public buildings,” the order read. 

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Institute of Architects ‘appalled’ by the order 

According to BBC, a draft of the order was first made public back in February, raising objections from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. On Monday, the institute said that the communities should have the “right and responsibility” to decide for themselves what architectural design best fits their needs. While the traditionalists will welcome the move, the institute, on the other hand, said that the order “unequivocally opposes” the initiative. 

Robert Ivy, who is the head of the institute, said that he is “appalled” with the administration’s decision to move forward with the design mandate. However, he also added that he “happy” that the order isn’t as far-reaching as previously thought. 

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