Will the White House Order New Federal Architecture To Be Classical? | 2020-02-04 | Architectural Record

While the country was riveted by the President s impeachment trial, a Washington rumor was quietly bubbling about a potential executive order that, if implemented, would profoundly affect the future of federal architecture.

RECORD has obtained what appears to be a preliminary draft of the order, under which the White House would require rewriting the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, issued in 1962, to ensure that the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style for new and upgraded federal buildings. Entitled Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, the draft order argues that the founding fathers embraced the classical models of democratic Athens and republican Rome for the capital s early buildings because the style symbolized the new nation s self-governing ideals (never mind, of course, that it was the prevailing style of the day).

via www.architecturalrecord.com

I think it’s a good idea. You wouldn’t have gotten, e.g., the brutalist style FBI building among other monstrosities. Are there any actually beautiful non-classical federal buildings?