CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — President Trump recently signed an executive order to be sure that newly built federal buildings are "beautiful," and listed the Corpus Christi Federal Courthouse as an example.
The order says that modern architecture of federal buildings, since the 1950s, has been unpopular with Americans.
The Guiding Principles of 1962 discouraged classical and other traditional designs known for their beauty, declaring instead that the government should use “contemporary” designs, the order said.
The order mentions modeling American buildings after those in ancient Athens and Rome, stating:
Notable Founding Fathers agreed with these assessments and attached great importance to Federal civic architecture. They wanted America’s public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue. President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson consciously modeled the most important buildings in Washington, D.C., on the classical architecture of ancient Athens and Rome. They sought to use classical architecture to visually connect our contemporary Republic with the antecedents of democracy in classical antiquity, reminding citizens not only of their rights but also their responsibilities in maintaining and perpetuating its institutions.
The Federal Government has largely stopped building beautiful buildings, Trump's order said, except for the Corpus Christi Federal Courthouse.
Due to this, President Trump has established the President’s Council on Improving Federal Civic Architecture.
"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. They should also be visibly identifiable as civic buildings and should be selected with input from the local community," the order stated.
President Trump wants to get rid of "brutalist" and "deconstructionist" style of architecture that has become popular in modern times. Brutalist style is defined in the executive order as a "block-like appearance with a rigidly geometric style and large-scale use of exposed poured concrete."
Deconstructionist architectural style "features fragmentation, disorder, discontinuity, distortion, skewed geometry, and the appearance of instability."
The order said it is time to update the policies guiding federal architecture to address these problems and "ensure that architects designing Federal buildings serve their clients, the American people."
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