It is not unreasonable to conclude that something went terribly wrong with the architecture of federal buildings in the (modernist) postwar era, producing clunkers such as the FBI Building, the HUD Building, and the Forrestal Building in Washington DC, and various bland federal buildings around the country. Surely prewar classical buildings represented something better? So, it is not unreasonable for the President to lead the conversation, taking the baton from Jefferson and FDR, who both had strong architectural opinions.
It is important to recognize that a “solution” will be complicated. Not easy to define what made those old buildiongs good; surely not simply Corinthian columns. For example, the competition brief that produced the Federal Reserve Board Building (above) specified that classical motifs such as pilasters and columns were not required—and Paul Cret included none. So, is the Fed building classical, or something else? It is also necessary to recognize that there were good postwar federal buildings (Walter Netsch’s Air Force Academy, Harry Cobb’s courthouse in Boston, Moshe Safdie’s courthouse in Springfield). What made them good?
The sensible thing would have been for the White House to form a sort of brains trust. Pick leading senior traditional-minded architects (Tom Beeby, Allen Greenberg) and some of the younger generation (Peter Pennoyer, Tom Kligerman), and maybe a historian and/or critic, and explore ways that things might be improved. At some point the GSA and the AIA would have to be involved. Someone has to take the lead, to prevent this from becoming a wish-washy committee; and it would have helped to have a Daniel Patrick Moynihan or a Robert A. M. Stern to steer the ship.
And what should be the ship’s destination? I am put in mind of Jerusalem’s municipal ordinance, dating back to the British Mandate, which says, in effect “Whatever is built, traditional or modern, it must be finished in Jerusalem stone (a local dolomitic limestone). Period.” Something that simple, and that binding, is what is required.
Instead we have a clumsy and heavy-handed executive order that will be about as effective as “All future federal buildings must be beautiful,” and will undoubtedly be cancelled by the first Democrat who is elected president.