‘Federal public buildings should uplift and beautify public spaces,’ the president wrote, calling for a focus on classical and traditional architecture.
President Donald Trump on Aug. 28 signed an executive order to “[Make] Federal Architecture Beautiful Again,” with a focus on using classical and traditional architecture in new federal buildings.
“Federal public buildings should uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command respect from the general public,” Trump wrote in the executive order.
It orders the federal government to favor classical and traditional architecture in designing, renovating, or reducing new or existing federal buildings.
In Washington, D.C., these styles would be “the preferred and default architecture for Federal public buildings absent exceptional factors necessitating another kind of architecture.”
Federal buildings affected by the order include courthouses, agency headquarters, all federal buildings in Washington, and all other projects that cost or are expected to cost more than $50 million in 2025. Infrastructure projects and land ports of entry are excluded.
The order defines classical architecture as “the architectural tradition derived from the forms, principles, and vocabulary of the architecture of Greek and Roman antiquity,” and has since been expanded upon by dozens of other architects.
Trump wrote that classical and traditional architecture aligned with the American Founders’ vision for the nation’s architecture, noting that President George Washington and then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson modeled government buildings in the federal district on the classical architecture of ancient Athens and Rome.
“The Founders … attached great importance to Federal civic architecture,” Trump wrote in the order. “They wanted America’s public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue.”
Trump said that classical and traditional architecture remained the preferred forms for federal buildings for 150 years after the nation was founded.
The action items in the order are directed at the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees the design and construction of new federal buildings.
By Joseph Lord
