President Pimp Daddy Gonna Approve All Federal Architecture

You might've missed this during all the other crap this week, but Donald Trump is now dabbling in architecture.  He needs a hobby to help him wind down after a stressful day of treason.  The president is preparing an executive order that would mandate a "classical style" for federal buildings in Washington DC and other parts of the country.  This would discourage boring, elitist "modern" design, or boring, elitist "Art Deco," like the Bonwit Teller building whose friezes Trump famously (and some say, illegally) demolished.  The group that actively appealed to Trump's cultural resentment is the National Civic Art Society.  The non-profit believes contemporary architecture has fostered an environment that's "degraded and dehumanizing."  If all this doesn't sound familiar, it should.  Trump's prolonged presence in DC is the problem-- but let's blame the buildings.

In a statement, the society's chair, Marion Smith said, "For too long architectural elites and bureaucrats have derided the idea of beauty, blatantly ignored public opinions on style, and have quietly spent taxpayer money constructing ugly, expensive, and inefficient buildings.  This executive order gives voice to the 99 percent — the ordinary American people who do not like what our government has been building."

The executive order would discourage modern forms of architecture--  like the Brutalist FBI building, which Trump hates -- and promote classical design.  If actual, professional architects want to design a building in a style other than classic, they'd have to first receive approval from a presidential "re-beautification" committee.  God help us if Ivanka Trump is on this committee.  Not surprisingly, Architects roundly hate this idea, especially because the order would override the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, which were developed in the 1960's.  These principles discouraged an "official style" for federal buildings, and provided that federal design must flow from the architectural profession to the federal government.  The Trump order, however, would dictate style to the architectural profession.  You can imagine this  "re-beautification" committee rejecting proposals because they don't incorporate enough Melanias on pianos.

Even if we replace Trump with a president who isn't a crass, vulgar blight on the nation, the executive order could force architects to consider short-term political whims over long-term artistic goals. Thom Mayne, a California architect and Pritzker Prize winner, expressed his concerns with a poetic eloquence that would make Trump's ears bleed, saying: "We are a society that is linked to openness of thought, to looking forward with optimism and confidence at a world that is always in the process of becoming. Architecture's obligation is to maintain this forward thinking stance."