Friday, February 7, 2020

"Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again"

As many readers may already know, two days ago the Chicago Sun-Times reported about a seven-page draft executive order from Donald Trump in which he decrees that future federal government buildings "should look like those of ancient Rome, Greece, and Europe." The article, an editorial written by the CST Editorial Board, is called "Make federal buildings 'beautiful again'? Trump declares war on modern architecture." The Federal Plaza designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is located in Chicago.
Photo: Rich Hein|Chicago Sun-Times
The same day, the New York Times published an article on the subject: "Draft Executive Order Would Give Trump a New Target: Modern Design." There was also an article about it in Dwell Magazine: "Trump Administration Drafts an Executive Order Mandating Neoclassical Architecture." The news has provoked a statement from the American Institute of Architects and a letter from the Society of Architectural Historians opposing the proposed order. There is also an article in Wired, which says the draft executive order "might be one of the most blatantly authoritarian things the government has yet done": "The Trump Administration and the New Architects of Fear."  

All the articles and documents cited here are recommended reading.
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3 comments:

  1. Tambra DillonFebruary 7, 2020 at 9:27 PM

    https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/09/22/us/22TRUMPTOWER/22TRUMPTOWER-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

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  2. Signe AdamFebruary 8, 2020 at 8:38 AM

    Reminds me of Hitler's campaign's against "degenerate" art Oy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. unheimlichFebruary 8, 2020 at 12:52 PM

    Don't overlook a Thursday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which Myron Magnet concluded:

    "Of course the modernist establishment has already slammed the proposed executive order, which overturns the General Services Administration’s design excellence program, long a full-employment scheme for modernist architects. The debate now, says an arts critic in the Guardian, is between “those who trust architects and professionals to design whatever they think is best, and those who seek to control what they do.”

    "That’s precisely right. Most Americans don’t like the buildings that architecture’s mandarins have crammed down their throats. Ordinary people choose traditional values over the wisdom of self-proclaimed experts every time."

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/drain-the-swamp-of-ugly-architecture-11581033204

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