A Trump-Era Push to Promote Classical Architecture Is Back
A GOP bill in Congress would make traditional design the preferred national style, pushing architecture further into the partisan arena.
Classical architecture has historically been the style of many famous federal buildings, like these national monuments.
Photographer: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In the waning days of his administration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order with a broad but vague mandate: All new federal buildings must be “beautiful.”
The December 2020 order fell short of an earlier draft that would have required all courthouses, administrative offices and other federal projects to be done in a classical style, effectively banning modern architecture for federal developments. While some of this stricter language made its way into solicitations from the General Services Administration (GSA), Trump’s proposal for a ban on modernist civic architecture never came to pass, and upon his election President Joe Biden swiftly overturned the “beautiful” order.