Trump’s Defeat Didn’t Stop His ‘Ban’ on Modern Architecture
The president never signed a controversial “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order. But a neoclassical-only building mandate is still happening.
The New United States Court House in Los Angeles, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 2016, draws from classical design principles. But its modernist elements would be frowned up under current GSA guidelines.
Photographer: James Leynse/Corbis Unreleased via Getty Images
Back in August, the General Services Administration posted a solicitation for a $125 million federal courthouse set to be built in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The language in the document included a telling requirement for the structure’s future architects: “Classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style absent special extenuating factors necessitating another style.”
That language appeared verbatim in “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” a draft executive order that circulated in February. The mandate from the White House would have made classical architecture the house style for the federal government.