A draft executive order, influenced by a small traditionalist group, would mandate a classical architectural style for major federal buildings in Washington D.C. and across the nation, emulating the ancient Greeks and Romans. It’s a reaction against what they see as the utter failure of brutalism and deconstructivism to conjure our national ideals in public edifices. Does conservatism mean preserving the styles that were popular among the Founders and Framers? Should an executive order determine the appearance of these temples that pay tribute to democracy and republican ideals?
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26 replies on “Make America Classical Again: Executive Order to Mandate Federal Architecture Style”
Make America Classical again! As an architect, I would add my thoughts to those of Bill, Scott and Steve. Modern civic architecture is a monument to human ingenuity, creativity and gravity-defying engineering, but it is still a monument to humans. The classical architecture of Washington, D.C., is a monument to an idea much larger than man. I am in awe when I pass through its portals, and am reminded of a time when discipline to an idea brought us closer together.
Is this how we lure the bureaucrats to leave DC? Just build noble edifices in the far reaches of the country and they will come? Nah, I didn’t think so. Me thinks it’s gonna take tough love to unstick those DC remoras.
You are right, but a significant part of this alleged executive order isn’t about building in DC. It’s about building new courthouses (and buildings for other services) across the country as old ones are needing to be replaced or expanded.
I agree with Scott about $50M federal buildings, but would take it a whole lot further. How about we don’t build any more federal buildings? Instead, how about razing some of these brutalist ones to the ground? And I don’t agree about the supposed wonderful classical style of much of DC. It serves to elevate the vermin politicians who go there to make long careers and large fortunes. Government buildings should be modest, not ostentatious. Sure, make them with a nod to the classical style, but make them like government should be: as small and unobtrusive as feasibly possible. It’s frankly shocking that the $50M figure has to be so large. Why the hell do we need any more government, and at such a high cost?
I think the goal should be to need many fewer federal buildings, especially in DC. Then rent the empty ones to others to do something useful with them.
I dislike modern architecture – it feels cold, off-putting and doesn’t lend itself to command respect (to me, anyway) and I think it feeds into the lawlessness that we’re currently experiencing in a roundabout way.
OMG are we out of enemies. Let us get back to what I pay for. What a waste of 18 minutes
Sorry to disappoint, Jim.
Sincere question: What is it that you pay for, to which you wish us to get back?
I like the palate cleanser episodes. It’s also why I read Steve’s Florida man stories over at that other place.
Agreed. We come for the hard politics, but some tangenical cultural posts work, too.
I at least am paying for Bill’s insight and opinions on the culture war. I enjoy his specifically political commentary too, but can get politics lots of other places.
I pay for the whole ball of wax. I’m not particularly interested in aviation, but many others here are and I’m not going to begrudge them their enjoyment of the topic. As long as I’ve followed Bill, he’s always covered culture, politics and aviation.
You said it better than I did, Julieann. My statement implied that I’m only paying for (interested in) non-political content, when what I meant was that it’s an important part of what I pay for, and I wouldn’t willingly forgo it.
Art and architecture are terrific examples of how the Left’s deconstructionism has perverted our culture. As usual, they get it exactly inverted, which I think is deliberate. But it has penetrated our thinking so thoroughly that at the end of a discussion about how architecture like the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol building (vs. the Hoover building) makes people feel when they stand outside looking at it or when they stand inside it looking up or around, Scott presents an argument that how we judge architecture should be based on how the architect feels, his emotional motivations, whether his personal perspective is noble.
No. Art and architecture are about how the viewer feels, not how the artist feels. By teaching us from preschool that it’s the opposite, the Left has elevated the cliche of the artist’s search for truth, beauty, and meaning, his creative process, over the end result. Thus they have inverted art. I personally believe that this was a deliberate attempt to destroy art, as part of their overall goals of pushing relativism in their attempt to promote egalitarianism and collectivism over time. This was particularly easy for them to do in art because defining beauty objectively is hard. So they flipped the focus from the art itself to the artist.
But, as Bill has said elsewhere, you can’t beat the biology out of people. Place an abstract painting next to a Boticelli madonna and people know which one is art and which isn’t. (Actually, the Left has even co-opted and inverted the meaning of the term “abstract” in this regard.)
If you’re interested in a comprehensive argument that takes down each currently-taught notion about art one by one, take a look at
https://www.artrenewal.org/Article/Title/the-philosophy-of-arc
at the Art Renewal Center.
The Left seeks to destroy everything; and by everything, I mean EVERYTHING!
How ‘bout “no style mandates” except NO brutalsim.
Also, the Ancient Greek/Roman style does a good job of conveying authority w/o exuding authoritarianism.
Would it be more appropriate to tear down the Capitol building and rebuild in the architectural style of a whorehouse?
Getting back to my minor soapbox, fun, nonpolitical stories would be great for a weekend release. We wouldn’t be losing content since we would still be getting a BWN each weekday. Just a thought!
Bob, our video posting schedule is constrained by the availability of the man who posts them — and who works two full-time jobs. Just wanted you to know that we hear you, and don’t disagree.
Understandable, and thank you for the response. I’ll lay off until we get enough memberships so that our web master can quit his day job!
I’m sure that I’m not the only one here who would love to see the return of “News, Actually” as a daily feature!
I up-voted as I miss that and Scrappleface. But am not going to add more to Scott’s plate at the moment.
There’s some discussion of architecture in the video of Scruton’s “Why Beauty Matters” for anybody who’s interested.
Thank you for your blog post on Scruton! I had seen his discussion w/ Jordan Peterson on Transcendence, but didn’t have any idea who he was. The video was great!
You’re welcome but, while I think I posted that video quite a while back, that particular blog post was by Davey Packer.
Design not only should but must follow function and purpose. To hold to tradition BECAUSE it is traditional is madness cubed no matter how new or old the tradition. It is even worse when the so called tradition is dictated by ignorant incompetent self elected elite as superior to the dirt under fingernails merely functional and purposeful.
Such a thing is put forth by wannabe designers who haven’t had an original or purposeful thought in their lives and are no longer capable of having them if they ever were. They are for ordinary mundane mediocrity for mundane mediocrity’s sake because they are hardly capable of even that.
The better path is to reduce the size of government so that it can fit into ten percent of the building space already in existence. Sell the rest to the highest bidder and use the funds to start paying down the national debt. Then if the government feels it needs more space, fire the excess parasites without benefit of pension and prohibit them from working for government ever again.