The AIA has expressed support for legislation recently re-introduced to the U.S. Congress, which seeks to prevent future administrations and the federal government from mandating preferred design styles for federal buildings. The organization had previously been critical of a 2020 decision by the Trump Administration to make classical architecture “the preferred and default style” for America’s public buildings.
The bill currently sitting in Congress, named the “Democracy in Design Act,” would codify the U.S. General Service Administration’s 1962 Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, and prohibit the federal government from mandating a preferred national design style. The bill also includes a requirement that any changes to the Design Excellence Program, which guides the procurement, design, and construction of public buildings, would need to include public comment before enactment.
“Recent attempts to establish a federal design mandate demonstrated the crucial need to institute well defined, transparent, and democratic processes around federal design decisions,” said 2021 AIA President Peter Exley. “We are committed to working with lawmakers who support AIA’s effort to safeguard our nation’s buildings from being subject to political preferences in the future and to ensure public buildings meet the needs of the communities they serve.”
In February, the Biden Administration overturned the previous administration’s Executive Order “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” which allowed government agencies to mandate an architecture style for federal buildings, including courthouses. The order also expressed strong support for “classical” and “traditional” architecture above other styles, and required specific justification for the use of styles other than classical architecture.
The Executive Order was signed into law in December 2020, prompting the AIA to announce plans to work with the incoming Biden Administration to reverse the mandate. They were joined by Docomomo US, who also released a statement condemning the Executive Order. In May 2021, four commissioners who helped craft the Executive Order were removed by the Biden Administration. Justin Shubow, then-chair of the US. Commission of Fine Arts and an advocate of classical architecture, was removed having refused to resign.
For more insights into the saga, you can browse Archinect’s coverage of the topic via the “Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” tag.
3 Comments
Style aside, theDailyTrotter has pointed out that there are deficiencies in the past administrations deregulation of law around Architectural law. theDailyTrotter hopes that Congress will work to create a Federal consensus of law regard general Architectural practice that prohibits Architects from being involved active criminal activity, like an enforced Morality and Good Repute law. The American Institute of Architects can benefit from Federal law and I hope the leadership stops to think about not forgoing the value of Architectural language in their political lobbying. A combined thought of making Architects communicate comprehensible style while the new law prohibits criminals from being Architects is an ideal tack point for Congress. The closing point is that females need to not be forced into criminal cultures around offices for Architecture to be successful in the future.
Uh, ok.
Maybe AIA should switch from the Doric column and eagle to plain ol' pilotis and bunny rabbit.
...Wait.., they've already changed!
Now, go back to pilotis and bunny rabbit.
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