NPR

'Just Plain Ugly': Proposed Executive Order Takes Aim At Modern Architecture

President Trump upset the architectural world when he proposed an executive order mandating traditional, classical architecture for new federal buildings, and calling some buildings "just plain ugly."
The FBI building in downtown Washington, D.C. — Utah Sen. Mike Lee describes it as looking like "an abandoned set from <em>The Hunger Games</em>."

The architectural world is reeling over President Trump's call for traditional designs for new Federal buildings. His proposed executive order is called "Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again," it takes an out-with-the-new, in-with-the-old approach to architecture, calling modern federal buildings constructed over the last five decades "undistinguished," "uninspiring" and "just plain ugly."

It's true that modernism abounds in D.C. Standing on a street corner near the National Mall, there's actually a mishmash of architectural styles. Let's

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