Trump Mandates Classical Style for Federal Buildings

President Trump issues executive order requiring classical architecture for federal buildings, reversing decades of modernist design preferences.

President Trump just signed an executive order that might just change the face of government buildings across America. The order, officially titled "Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again," basically requires that all new federal buildings worth more than $50 million must be designed in classical styles like Neoclassical, Georgian, or Beaux-Arts. This isn't some vague suggestion either we're talking about a full-blown mandate that specifically calls out Brutalist and Deconstructivist architecture as undesirable. The administration's argument is that since the 1960s, the government's been putting up what they call "unpopular" and frankly confusing buildings that regular Americans can't even identify as civic structures. They're looking to reconnect with the architectural traditions that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson originally championed for our nation's capital.

Now, here's where it gets really technical the order requires the General Services Administration to hire a senior classical architecture advisor and retrain their review architects in traditional design principles. Every time the GSA wants to approve a non-classical design, they'll have to jump through some serious hoops notifying the White House 30 days in advance and providing a detailed justification comparing costs, maintenance requirements, and how well the design reflects "American dignity." They'll need to explain why any alternative design could possibly be as beautiful as classical options. The order even specifies that design competitions must now give "substantive weight" to firms with classical experience, which basically reshapes the entire federal procurement process for architectural services.

The architecture world is already split right down the middle on this one. The National Civic Art Society is calling it a "watershed moment" that gives regular Americans a voice in public architecture. You know, the American Institute of Architects didn't hold back at all they put out a really strong statement pushing back hard against what they're calling a "one-size-fits-all" approach to design. Their main argument is that a mandate like this actually works against the grain of American culture. They believe architecture should be a reflection of the country's incredibly diverse communities, not just a single, government-picked style from the past. This whole thing has basically thrown gasoline on a debate that's been quietly brewing among architects and historians for over sixty years, ever since the big shift toward modernism. It all comes back to that fundamental question: did architecture leave the public behind when it embraced the abstract, or was it just evolving like everything else? As one former GSA chief architect told me, "This isn't just about columns versus concrete it's about who defines American identity through our shared public spaces, and that conversation is about to get very interesting."