Government buildings in America must be built in a “beautiful” classical style, President Trump has said.
An executive order declares that new federal buildings must avoid modernist styles and instead look like “beloved” landmarks such as the White House. The direction will apply to all agency headquarters, federal courthouses, public buildings in Washington and all public buildings in the US costing more than $50 million to construct.
The order defines the permitted form of architecture as the “tradition derived from the forms, principles, and vocabulary of the architecture of Greek and Roman antiquity”, which “encompasses such styles as neoclassical, Georgian, federal, Greek revival, beaux-arts and art deco”.
New buildings, the order adds, should “uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United
