Federal buildings will receive a much-needed facelift under President Trump’s latest executive action.
In an executive order signed on Friday and released by the White House on Monday, the president proclaimed that classical architecture shall be the default for federal buildings. This reverses a 60-year federal government policy promoting the use of styles totally detached from America’s republican heritage. As reported by The New American, this order had been under consideration at least since February 2020.
President Trump’s Order
In the section explaining its purpose, the order states that “societies,” including the Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Renaissance Europeans, “long recognized the importance of beautiful public architecture.” It goes on to note that the Founding Fathers “attached great importance to Federal civic architecture,” wanting “America’s public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue.” This emphasis continued through the early 20th century and was exemplified by grand structures such the White House, the Capitol Building, and the Supreme Court Building.
According to the order, however, in the mid-20th century, these traditional and classical styles were replaced with brutalist and deconstructivist styles — detached from history, culture, and America’s civic heritage. In fact, the “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture,” adopted in 1962 and authored by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, even discouraged traditional designs in favor of “contemporary” ones. As a result, the majority of subsequent federal buildings have resembled styles similar to the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, and the San Francisco Federal Building.
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President Trump’s order seeks to reverse this trend. It makes “traditional and classical architecture” — defined as styles including Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco architecture — the “preferred” style for federal buildings, and it makes “classical architecture … the preferred and default architecture” for federal buildings in the District of Columbia.
While not completely prohibiting brutalist or deconstructivist architecture, the order strongly discourages it. For example, if a non-classical federal building is proposed, “great care and consideration must be taken to choose a design that commands respect from the general public and clearly conveys … America’s system of self-government.” Additionally, for every non-classical proposal, especially those involving brutalist or deconstructivist styles, the administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) must notify the president and provide a detailed explanation of why that particular design was chosen.
Last, but not least, President Trump’s order creates the President’s Council on Improving Federal Civic Architecture. The council is charged with recommending changes to the GSA’s policies to implement the order.
The Importance of Architecture
While President Trump’s order might appear minor or trivial, in reality, it is a significant and long-overdue action. One’s choice of architecture reflects one’s character, culture, and values. This is as true for countries — including the United States — as it is for individuals.
The Founding Fathers designed the U.S. as a federal republic, based on the rule of law rather than the shifting whims of the popular majority, and took inspiration from the Ancient Greeks and Romans. As already mentioned, the founders and their contemporaries also applied this to the country’s architecture, and such a strong association existed that the Roman-inspired architecture of the late-18th and early-19th centuries became known as “Federal style.”
On the other hand, globalists and Marxists, in their quest for a one-world government separated from traditional culture and Judeo-Christian values, have worked to sever Americans from their national heritage. They have used various methods to accomplish this, including enabling cultural Marxist indoctrination in the public education system and by reshaping the country through mass migration. Promoting architectural styles completely disconnected from culture and history is another, very subtle, method.
This explains why, among its other actions, the Soviet Union promoted modernist architectural styles such as Constructivism, which sought “to create an environment that would inculcate new social values.” The Soviet communists, like other Marxists, understood that the submersion of society in such architectural styles helps detach individuals from their history, heritage, culture, and nationality.
In the past four years, President Trump has worked to promote Americanism in multiple areas, including in education, promoting American history, and, now, in architecture. His push in the latter area is also popular, with 72 percent of Americans supporting the use of traditional architecture for federal buildings over modernist styles, according to a Harris Poll in October.
Let’s hope that President Trump’s latest order represents the beginning, rather than the climax, of the restoration of Americanism in all areas of civic life in the United States.
