Following his inauguration yesterday, President Donald Trump has reinstated a policy from his first term that favors “classical” styles for government buildings over modernist ones.
The newly issued policy, officially titled the Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture executive order, is aimed at promoting a kind of civic architecture that “commands public admiration.” When it was first introduced in 2020, many US architects critiqued the move as regressive, viewing it as an attempt by the Trump administration to impose a uniform style on public buildings and to promote nationalist ideals.
That year, Robert Ivy, the former head of the American Institute of Architects, said the group opposed the order, which he said would impose rigid aesthetic preferences and stifle creativity. Detractors also said that Trump was attempting to ban future buildings done in styles recalling Brutalism and Deconstrucivism, two modernist movements that were mentioned by name in the original order.
The executive order, which was signed alongside others focused on the US-Mexico border, directs federal agency heads and the General Services Administration, the organization that manages federal buildings and real estate, to provide recommendations within 60 days for aligning federal architecture with traditional and “classical” principles.
The aim of the order is to “beautify public spaces” by emphasizing architectural designs that “respect regional heritage and align with America’s classical traditions.” The term “classical” refers to Neoclassicism, the Georgian style, the Greek Revival, Gothicism, and other architectural modes that came prior to the modernist era.
The Trump administration directive is an updated on a 1962 policy on federal architecture, which focused on shared governance in design decisions, with community input influencing how public structures would be realized or renovated.
Trump’s 2020 executive order was repealed by President Joe Biden early in his term in February 2021. At the time, the AIA’s president, Peter Exley, said, “By overturning this order, the Biden Administration has restored communities with the freedom of design choice that is essential to designing federal buildings that best serve the public. This is fundamental to an architect’s process and to achieving the highest quality buildings possible.”
