Donald Trump has ordered government buildings to be constructed in the “classical style” of the ancient West, heralding a return to white-marble and colonnades.
In an executive order signed on Thursday night, the president declared that new projects should be built “in a style that uplifts and beautifies public spaces, ennobles our nation and commands respect from the general public.”
“Classical architecture [must] serve as the preferred architectural style for all federal public buildings, especially in the District of Columbia,” reads the order, entitled “Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again.”
New construction must adhere more closely to the grand, Greco-Roman style of the US Capitol and White House, the order specifies. And it spells a return to the drawing board for construction projects designed in the brutalist or modernist style that came into favour in the 1960s.
