Trump attempts to turn the tide on ugly government architecture Follow Us Question of the Day ANALYSIS/OPINION: President Trump thinks we should stop paying for ugly government buildings. On Dec. 21, he announced the formation of a President’s Council on Improving Federal Civic Architecture. He wants more of the kind of buildings that tourists flock to see and fewer that resemble Soviet-style “brutalist” designs. In 2007, my wife and I were in Warsaw, Poland, for a World Congress of Families conference. During our cab ride from the airport, we saw miles and miles of ugly modernist architecture foisted on the Polish people by their communist masters.