Trump signs executive order recommending classical designs for federal buildings
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday designating classical architecture as the preferred style for federal buildings and stating that such architecture should be beautiful. Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 21 (UPI) President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order establishing classical architecture as the preferred style for federal buildings in Washington, D.C.
The order does not explicitly mandate that buildings be constructed in classical style, rather stating that they should be beautiful and establishes a Council for Improving Federal Civic Architecture to recommend updates to guidelines from the General Services Administration.
Last modified on Tue 22 Dec 2020 07.34 EST
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Congress has passed a $900bn coronavirus aid package, after months of gridlock in Washington and both parties working yesterday long into the night. The package includes a temporary jobless benefit, a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans and subsidies for businesses, as well as funds for schools, healthcare providers and renters. At a whopping 5,593 pages, it is probably the longest bill in US history.
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Bloomberg December 21, 2020 11:25 am
(Bloomberg) President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday making classical architecture the preferred style for federal buildings in Washington, a White House official said Monday.
The presidential action stops short of mandating that all new federal buildings be built in a classical style, saying merely that they must be “beautiful.”
Under the order, a “Council for Improving Federal Civic Architecture” will be formed to recommend updates to the General Services Administration’s architectural guidelines.
The administration has been writing the executive order for months, and an early draft that would have banned modernist design prompted condemnation from the American Institute of Architects and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Trump Makes Classical Style the Default for Federal Buildings
An executive order stopped short of banning modernist architecture, but states that “the preferred architecture” style for new buildings should be classical.
A new executive order says that classical architecture should be the default style for federal buildings in Washington. Credit.Edwin Remsburg/VW Pics, via Getty Images
By Zachary Small
Dec. 21, 2020
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday that establishes classical architecture as the preferred style for new federal buildings but stops short of banning newer designs from consideration.
The executive order, titled “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” mandates that federal buildings be “beautiful” and praises the characteristics of Greco-Roman architecture; by contrast, recent modernist designs are described in the text as “ugly and inconsistent.”