There shall be one style
Who knew they wanted to ruin the built environment too?
We should have known, I suppose, given Trump’s notorious bad taste. Mr Tacky Versailles is just the type to think we must have just the one style of architecture and it should be that old marbley dignified kind like banks and public toilets.
In 1962, future Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan outlined the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, which prioritized contextual, human-centered buildings and argued that “an official style must be avoided.”
I wonder if he did that in reaction to the Stalinist horrors that loom over Pennsylvania Avenue.
These directives have informed policy at the U.S. General Services Administration for over 50 years—however that could soon change.
Because Evil Don has a better idea.
According to a report by Architectural Record, an executive order drafted by President Trump’s White House—titled Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again—would reverse that standard. The reported document states that “the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style” for any new or upgraded federal buildings nationwide.
It’s the white people style of architecture, god damn it, and it should be everywhere forever amen.
The draft argues that the capital’s early buildings were built in the classical architectural style because it symbolized the nation’s “self-governing ideals.” It criticizes contemporary architecture, citing that, among others, San Francisco’s Federal Building by Morphosis—a feat of sustainable architecture—fails to express “national values.
Oh yes? What national values are those? Corruption, nepotism, self-enrichment via government funding, theft, election fraud, extortion, blackmail, rape, sadism, bullying, lying, revenge firings, ignorance, incompetence, vulgarity, rudeness, self-dealing…my god it’s a long list. Those are the national values are they? Because if they’re not, what makes Donald Trump think he can tell us anything about national values?
Under the order, brutalism, deconstructivism, and anything characterized as “modern,” will not be tolerated, as these styles have “little aesthetic appeal.”
What does Donald Trump know about aesthetic appeal?
That’s his living room.
Maybe he was inspired by this:
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/germanias-long-shadow_berlin-xc.html
Yes, I’m going for the Godwin on the first post. Sue me.
Well his aesthetic sense is right up there (i.e. down there) with Hitler’s. Their simpleminded taste probably had/has similar origins. Both had/have weird obsessions with purity which emerge in
1. racism
2. simplistic conservative affinity for classical buildings
@YNNB, it’s not going Godwin if you’re dealing with actual Nazis.
“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
So what fragmentary remains of Orange Julius wiil be left behind for the ispiration of future Shelleys? Small Fingers, or the Combover that would be King?
chigau, I always suspect it will be a better day if I wake to someone quoting Ozymandias. This is the second reference to that work I have been treated to in two days (well, to be fair, I did start the conversation yesterday myself, so that probably doesn’t count).