The Architecture Lobby (T-A-L) has issued a statement on Trump’s executive order on architecture, which purports to “make federal buildings beautiful again” by mandating a return to neoclassical architecture.

In response to the news of an executive order under consideration by the Trump administration dictating that “the classical architectural style shall be the preferred and default style” for Federal projects, the Architecture Lobby is stating its unambiguous opposition to the attempt to enshrine architectural classicism as a national style…The administration’s chosen style glorifies an imperialist, colonialist, and white supremacist past.

The Design Justice Network fully supports the T-A-L statement. Read the full statement here.

We also see this as an important moment to engage in critical dialog around the creation of design principles. The executive order would require a rewrite of the Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture. The principles were written in 1962 for John F Kennedy by senator David Patrick Moynihan, who also wrote that “design must flow from the architectural profession to the government and not vice-versa.”

Who participates in writing architectural principles, and who does not? Which communities and demographics are notably absent, and how does this underrepresentation compare to who is best represented in the corridors of power?