Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again
This Executive Order directs federal agencies, primarily through the General Services Administration (GSA), to prefer classical and other traditional architectural styles for many new and major federal public buildings. It sets a policy that federal civic architecture should uplift public spaces, be visually identifiable as civic buildings, and, where appropriate, respect regional traditions — with classical architecture the default in Washington, D.C. The order requires changes to GSA hiring, procurement, and design-competition practices, and places new review and reporting requirements on GSA when non-preferred styles are proposed. The practical effect is to shift procurement and design decisions toward architects and designs experienced in classical/traditional modes, to make those styles the baseline for courthouses, agency headquarters, large-cost projects, and all federal buildings in the National Capital Region, and to require senior-level accountability inside GSA for implementing the policy. The order is subject to existing law and available appropriations and does not create private legal rights.
Key Points
- 1Scope and preference: Applies to federal courthouses and agency headquarters, all federal public buildings in the National Capital Region (greater D.C.), and other federal public buildings with estimated costs over $50 million (in 2025 dollars). Classical and traditional architecture are designated as the preferred styles; in D.C., classical is the default unless exceptional factors justify otherwise.
- 2GSA staffing and expertise: GSA must ensure architects who review or approve applicable projects have formal training or significant experience with classical/traditional architecture and create a senior advisor for architectural design with specialized classical experience.
- 3Procurement and competition changes: When GSA runs design-build competitions (per 41 U.S.C. §3309), experience in classical/traditional architecture must be listed as specialized experience in phase-one solicitations and given substantive weight in advancing offerors to later phases. GSA must actively recruit firms with relevant classical/traditional experience and try to advance multiple such designs to final evaluation rounds.
- 4Review and Presidential notice for divergent designs: If GSA proposes approving a design that departs from the preferred styles (including Brutalist or Deconstructivist designs), the Administrator must notify the President (via the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy) at least 30 days before a point of no return, and provide detailed justification and cost comparisons with preferred-design options.
- 5Guiding principles: The order sets principles emphasizing beauty, civic identity, durability, regional traditions, economic life-cycle considerations (construction, operation, maintenance), accessibility, and incorporation of fine art (with emphasis on living American artists). Design decisions should “flow from” government needs and public preferences rather than from architects alone.