Brutalism is back, baby.

President Joe Biden revoked several of former president Trump’s executive actions on Wednesday, including the administration’s attempt to give modern architecture in federal buildings the boot in favor of classical styles like Greco-Roman columns.

The first draft of the original executive action obtained by Architectural Record last year entitled “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” used language like “just plain ugly” to describe the boxy buildings downtown. Brutalist architecture is scattered across the District, including at the J. Edgar Hoover building where the FBI is headquartered; the U.S. Department of Energy building; and of course, the city’s many Metro stations.

The executive order was not well received by architects.

“95,000 of us around the country were appalled at the thought that design could be legislated. You can’t legislate beauty,” Robert Ivy, the Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects, tells DCist/WAMU. “We expressed ourselves in the strongest possible terms.”

The order was later renamed “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” and signed during the final moments of the Trump administration. The action called for the establishment of a council that would keep federal buildings “beautiful and reflective of the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the American system of self-government.” The council was set to disband next September unless a new administration changed course.

Biden’s instructions issued Wednesday to the Office of Management and Budget and related agencies are to abolish any “personnel positions, committees, task forces, or other entities established” to fulfill the previous executive actions “as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.”

In a statement to NPR shortly after Biden rescinded the order, Justin Shubow,  current chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and Trump-appointee said, “We intend to work with the Biden administration to implement change that will build a truly democratic architecture.”

According to its website, the CFA is charged with giving expert advice to the president, Congress, and the federal and District of Columbia governments on matters of design and aesthetics. He noted that “historically, our advice is always heeded.”

Before the executive order made headlines, Trump took aim at brutalist architecture midway through his term. According to Axios, he called the FBI building “one of the ugliest buildings in the city” back in 2018. (Though he wouldn’t be the first one to do so.) The building also happens to be located across the street from Trump International Hotel.

Shubow, meanwhile, is the former president of the National Civic Art Society, an organization dedicated to advancing the “classical tradition in public art,” and which has been outspoken about brutalist architecture. The nonprofit’s website claims “our most important buildings are too often ugly, even bizarre.”

Ivy hopes the kind of language seen in the executive order won’t seep back into the discourse. “The General Services Administration is responsible for federal buildings all over the country,” Ivy tells DCist/WAMU, noting a new project underway in Mississippi. “Does that community want to look back to a past that was repressive? These buildings are symbols.”

This story has been updated to reflect that Justin Shubow is the current president of the National Civic Art Society and served as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts prior to becoming its chairman.

Previously: 
Trump Order Would Require Classical Style For New Federal Buildings. Architects Aren’t Happy About It.
Other D.C. Brutalist Buildings Trump Would Probably Hate If They Were Across From His Hotel