Doric, Ionic, moronic: Architects blast Trump
AIA ‘staunchly opposed’ to executive order on ‘classical’ fed buildings that ‘thumbs its nose at societal needs’
The buildings surrounding Federal Plaza in Chicago, as seen from the corner of Adams and Clark: the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse (left) and Kluczynski Building (right), with the Post Office in the foreground — all designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. (Flickr/Ken Lund)
By Ted Cox
Architects are telling President Trump to butt out over a proposed executive order that would call for new federal buildings to be constructed in a “classical” Greek or Roman design.
The American Institute of Architects sent a letter directly to Trump on Thursday taking issue with a proposed executive order it thought had already been put to rest. According to the AIA, Trump’s order “would officially designate ‘classical’ architecture as the preferred style for all U.S. federal courthouses … to be mandated by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”
The AIA felt blindsided in that the architects’ group met in mid-January with a Trump aide and received assurances the proposal was dead. “At that time, it was our understanding that this draft executive order was not moving forward,” the letter stated. “We were shocked and disappointed to hear that it is still in circulation.”
The letter goes on to state: “As currently written, this order would officially designate ‘classical’ architecture as the preferred style for all U.S. federal courthouses. That restriction would also apply to all federal public buildings in the Capital region and all other federal public buildings whose costs exceed $50 million in modern dollars.
“The draft we have seen also attempts to define ‘classical architectural style’ to mean architectural features derived from classical Greek and Roman architecture with some allowances for ‘traditional architectural style,’” it adds. “Given that the specific type of architecture preferred in the order can increase the cost of a project (to up to three times as much), we would hope the (General Services Administration), Congress, and others would take pause. Since these costs would have to be borne by U.S. taxpayers, this is not an inconsequential concern.”
Earlier in the week, the AIA sent an online memo to its 95,000 members calling for action. “The high bar required to satisfy the process described within the executive order would all but restrict the ability to design the federal buildings under this order in anything but the preferred style,” it stated. “The AIA strongly condemns the move to enforce a top-down directive on architectural style. Design decisions should be left to the designer and the community, not bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. All architectural styles have value and all communities have the right to weigh in on the government buildings meant to serve them.”
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, which ran an editorial on the issue on Thursday, Trump’s draft order is called “Making Federal Buildings Great Again.” It would place oversight on new U.S. courthouses and other federal buildings in the hands of an appointed “President’s Committee for the Re-Beautification of Federal Architecture.”
Trump’s order states that, since the 1950s, the U.S. government has “largely stopped building beautiful buildings that the American people want to look at or work in,” and it mandates that “classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style.”
President Trump wants to limit the design of new federal buildings to “classical architectural style.” (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
Trump is clearly thinking of the classical design elements of the White House, with its portico supported by Ionic columns with a pediment above, or the U.S. Supreme Court, with its Corinthian columns and pediment with a bas relief — not the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, which looks as if it’s been dropped in from the skyline of Oz.
The AIA letter, signed by President Jane Frederick and Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, calls the requirements of the entire oversight process “burdensome and almost impossible to meet.” The group proclaims its openness to all styles of architecture, given local tastes and surroundings and economic concerns, and argues that the oversight committee would run roughshod over the preferences of local citizens.
“Communities should continue to have the right and responsibility to decide for themselves what architectural design best fits their needs,” it states. “This approach will cut local voices out of a critical part of the design process.”
The issue is not merely aesthetic and economic, but also cultural. The Sun-Times points out that a reactionary emphasis on what’s considered “classical” design was a basic tenet of fascist architecture in the 1930s.
“It doesn’t go unnoticed here that Mussolini, Franco, and a particular failed German art student (Adolf Hitler) all pushed for a singular, classically inspired state architecture intended to project tradition, order, and the superiority of the state,” its editorial states.
The editorial champions Chicago’s Federal Plaza, bordered on three sides by buildings constructed in the ‘60s and ‘70s: the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, the Kluczynski Building, and a Post Office, all designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the manner of his “less is more” International Style. The plaza is also anchored by Alexander Calder’s massive, abstract, modernist “Flamingo” sculpture.
The editorial points out: “Mies was an immigrant to Chicago. He came to town after being driven out of Germany by the Nazis, who deemed his work ‘degenerate.’”
“President Trump, this draft order is antithetical to giving the ‘people’ a voice and would set an extremely harmful precedent,” the AIA letter concludes. “It thumbs its nose at societal needs, even those of your own legacy as a builder and promoter of contemporary architecture. Our society should celebrate the differences that develop across space and time. AIA remains staunchly opposed to this proposed executive order. Please ensure that this order is not finalized or executed.”
The Sun-Times is even more forthright in closing: “Trump’s executive order belongs in the ashcan of history. One of marble, with domes and columns, if that helps.”