The United States General Services Administration (GSA) recently published a project solicitation notice for a planned federal courthouse in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area that mandates a "classical architectural style" for the facility.
In response to the solicitation, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has issued a strong rebuke of the project, calling the effort a "project-by-project replacement" by the GSA of the controversial "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" draft executive order proposed by President Donald Trump earlier this year.
Describing the organization's fierce opposition to the potential mandate, AIA EVP/Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA writes, “We reject the principle of any pre-ordained styles mandated for GSA projects,” adding, “Instead, the AIA emphatically supports the peer-reviewed Design Excellence Program, which has raised the quality of federal design in communities throughout the United States, with projects tailored to the people, the places, and the times we live in.”
In February of this year, news came to light that President Donald Trump was considering an executive order that would mandate classical styling for certain federal building projects, including all federal courthouses, all federal public buildings in the Capital region, and all other federal public buildings whose cost exceeds $50 million. Word of the proposed executive order drew swift condemnation of the proposal from a collection of architecture and cultural heritage groups, with many highlighting the ties between classical architecture and insurgent racist and nationalist ideologies.
More recently, the United States House of Representatives has proposed the “Democracy in Design Act” (H.R.7604), which would enshrine the GSA's existing, stylistically agnostic Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture into law.
6 Comments
But what if we pretended there WERE NO RULES?
No im all for it. Lets see what the federal government says when they see the cost of marble, granite and limestone panels compared to metal panel, brick and glass. I bet that new rule goes away REAL fast when the GSA sees the costs.
#bringbackgargoyles
#culturedstone and #honeycombstone will prove you wrong, unfortunately. Still expensive, but manageable.
Listen, if they want true federal, we arent using that #fakestone. This thing needs to last the next 200 years, right?
As a serious statement, yes. As a bit of snark, I think it's great. Trump wouldn't know how to build shit that lasts if someone encoded it via q-anon.
Why don't they just build in the "classical modernist" style
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