We’re now at the end of the road where Trump imagines that he can affect future architectural style in federal buildings. And of course he wants an airport named after him.
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counteroffer: Trump can have a rest stop toilet on the New Jersey Turnpike— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) December 21, 2020
So-called neofederal building styles that devolved to facadism in the modern and post-modern periods(sic), remind us that Trump’s own large-scale buildings are devoid of historical reference. Not exactly a master builder.
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A demand by the outgoing President that should now be shelved is that future federal buildings be designed in consistent neoclassical style. If you love democracy, you don’t need an “official” architecture intended to impress or scare citizens with the might of the State.
President Donald Trump never implemented a proposed measure that would have effectively banned new federal buildings from being constructed in the modern style, but one government agency has put its policy into practice anyway.
In at least two instances, the General Services Administration has echoed language that appeared in Trump’s “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” draft executive order, Bloomberg Citylab reported.
Had it been carried out, the order would have made “classical architectural style” — the style of the U.S. Capitol — as the default style for federal buildings, such as courthouses. The order circulated in February and wasn’t signed amid intense backlash from architects and others.
But in a solicitation for a $125 million courthouse set for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the GSA wrote that “classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style absent special extenuating factors necessitating another style,” a verbatim quote from Trump’s original draft executive order, according to Citylab.
In a similar solicitation for a courthouse in Huntsville, Alabama, the agency wrote that “the GSA intends that the design of the new courthouse be neoclassical/Greek revival in style, in keeping with other recent Federal courthouses in the State of Alabama.”
The American Institute of Architects has criticized the GSA practice and the notion of an official style or a ban on certain types of architecture.
Rather than pre-qualified architects receiving the chance to design uniquely-contemporary federal structures for the cities they serve, all future government buildings would instead be reminiscent of the monumental, white construction that has defined Washington, D.C., since its inception, as well as the structures built-in ancient Rome and Greece, and more recently, in Hitler’s Third Reich. Tradition is beautiful, the order argued; modernism (especially Brutalism and Deconstructivism) is ugly. Case in point: the draft order was titled “Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again.”
The Trump administration is implementing a neoclassical-only building mandate, even though the president never signed a controversial “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” executive order https://t.co/vHw4hENNGu
Nazi architectureis the architecture promoted by theThird Reichfrom 1933 until its fall in 1945. It is characterized by three forms: astripped neoclassicism(typified by the designs ofAlbert Speer); a vernacular style that drew inspiration from traditional rural architecture, especially alpine; and a utilitarian style followed for major infrastructure projects and industrial or military complexes.
While similar to Classicism, the official Nazi style is distinguished by the impression it leaves on viewers. Architectural style was used by the Nazis to deliver and enforce their ideology. Formal elements like flat roofs, horizontal extension, uniformity, and the lack of decor created “an impression of simplicity, uniformity, monumentality, solidity and eternity,” which is how the Nazi Party wanted to appear.[2]
The crowning achievement of this movement was to be Welthauptstadt Germania, the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin following the Nazis' presumed victory of World War II. Speer, who oversaw the project, produced most of the plans for the new city. Only a small portion of the “World Capital” was ever built between 1937 and 1943. The plan's core features included the creation of a great neoclassical city based on an East-West axis with the Berlin victory column at its centre. Major Nazi buildings like the Reichstag or the Große Halle (never built) would adjoin wide boulevards. A great number of historic buildings in the city were demolished in the planned construction zones. However, with defeat of the Third Reich, the work was never started.
This video short highlights the complete failure of your border wall. Listen to your own words as you sell the BIGGEST FAILED PROMISE IN POLITICAL HISTORY!
“You’re not mopping fast enough. (Laughter) That’s a socialist mop. (Laughter and applause) Grab a mop — let’s get to work.” – Barack Obama (2009); “Soyez réalistes, demandez l’impossible!”
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