MAGA War on Architectural Diversity Weaponizes Greek Columns

[laylalex 7,300]

 

The Trump administration is now considering a draft executive order, “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” that would direct the use of traditional or classical architectural styles for nearly all new federal buildings and renovations. (The Smithsonian, as it happens, gets a pass, but I mention it to illustrate the sort of wellspring of ideas the order would subvert.) Any project seeking exemption from the mandate would have to get approval from a presidential “re-beautification” committee. The order would take aim at various forms of modernism and seeks to undo the widely admired Design Excellence Program of the General Services Administration, a peer review system for selecting qualified architects for federal projects. The program’s director, David Insinga, resigned last week, according to the Architectural Record, which broke the news about the order.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/arts/design/federal-building-architecture.html

 

I do not think the government should be in the business of telling us which art and architecture are "beautiful," particularly if only one style is favored. We are a nation that contains multitudes, and there are many different schools of thought and practice in relation to architecture, each with their own merits. To say from above, okay, only this is beautiful enough for America, is to say there is only one way to be sufficiently "beautiful" as a building, when that's not the only criterion on which a building could or should be judged. 

 

The word "rebeautification" gives me chills.

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,378]

When everything in the country is going so great, all you got to criticize Trump about, is a baseless  rumor that the he may institute a standard for new or renovated federal buildings. You know the important stuff.  The NYT. LMAO

 

[Ban Hammer 13,491]

14 hours ago, laylalex said:

The word "rebeautification" gives me chills.

isn't that what happens when a woman goes to a spa?

[Dashinka 24,744]

So is the NYTimes also now fact-checking Babylon Bee stories?

[Rosalind F 178]

I guess it is just a proposed draft of executive order but there are so many questions...

Since it is about federal buildings the government can get involved but that really feels like some weird form of censorship.

And why it must be a president appointed committee that decides how federal buildings should look - buildings hopefully serving much longer than the president?

And I definitely would not trust to decide what is beautiful (which sure is very subjective) to a person or a group appointed by this person who thinks that THIS is beautiful

(image source https://archpaper.com/2016/06/donald-trump-architecture/)

[Dashinka 24,744]

4 minutes ago, Rosalind F said:

I guess it is just a proposed draft of executive order but there are so many questions...

Since it is about federal buildings the government can get involved but that really feels like some weird form of censorship.

And why it must be a president appointed committee that decides how federal buildings should look - buildings hopefully serving much longer than the president?

And I definitely would not trust to decide what is beautiful (which sure is very subjective) to a person or a group appointed by this person who thinks that THIS is beautiful

(image source https://archpaper.com/2016/06/donald-trump-architecture/)

And yet you would trust a GSA bureaucrat to do anything?  My question is who cares!

[Rosalind F 178]

24 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

And yet you would trust a GSA bureaucrat to do anything?  My question is who cares!

I think GSA have done okay so far with both incredibly ugly and very nicely designed buildings. 

I personally care which kind of buildings I look at every day