In 1962, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then a bureaucrat working in the U.S. Department of Labor, wrote a report on federal office space for President John F. Kennedy. His draft included what came to be known as the “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture.” A trim manifesto of just 500 words, it still broadly serves the federal government to this day.
“The development of an official style must be avoided,” the future New York senator wrote, one of three rules he set in stone. “Design must flow from the architectural profession to the Government, and not vice versa.”
