Trump Signs Order Requiring Classical Architecture for Federal Buildings 21 Dec 2020 President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday requiring federal buildings be constructed in the style of American classical architectural codes. Following decades of modernist, brutalist, and deconstructivist designs for federal buildings, Trump has issued an order that will return federal architecture to its original ethos of classical, Neoclassical, Art Deco, Georgian, Greek Revival, and Beaux-Arts that was preferred by many of the Founding Fathers. “[Notable Founding Fathers] wanted America’s public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue,” the order states. “President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson consciously modeled the most important buildings in Washington, D.C., on the classical architecture of ancient Athens and Rome. They sought to use classical architecture to visually connect our contemporary Republic with the antecedents of democracy in classical antiquity, reminding citizens not only of their rights but also their responsibilities in maintaining and perpetuating its institutions.”