[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 168 (Wednesday, September 3, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 42685-42689]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-16928]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 168 / Wednesday, September 3, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 42685]]
Executive Order 14344 of August 28, 2025
Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. The Founders, in line with great
societies before them, attached great importance to
Federal civic architecture. They wanted America's
public buildings to inspire the American people and
encourage civic virtue. President George Washington and
Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson consciously modeled
the most important buildings in Washington, DC, on the
classical architecture of ancient Athens and Rome. They
sought to use classical architecture to visually
connect our contemporary Republic with the antecedents
of democracy in classical antiquity, reminding citizens
not only of their rights but also their
responsibilities in maintaining and perpetuating its
institutions.
Washington and Jefferson personally oversaw the
competitions to design the Capitol Building and the
White House. Under the direction and following the
vision of these two Founders, Pierre Charles L'Enfant
designed the Nation's capital as a classical city. For
approximately a century and a half following America's
founding, America's Federal architecture continued to
be characterized by beautiful and beloved buildings of
largely, though not exclusively, classical design. In
the 1960s, the Federal Government largely replaced
traditional designs for new construction with modernist
and brutalist ones. The Federal architecture that
ensued, overseen by the General Services Administration
(GSA), was often unpopular with Americans. The new
buildings ranged from the undistinguished to designs
even GSA now admits many in the public found
unappealing.
In 1994, GSA responded to this widespread criticism by
establishing the Design Excellence Program. The GSA
intended that program to ``provide visual testimony to
the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the
American Government.'' Unfortunately, the program has
not met this goal. Under the Design Excellence Program,
GSA has often selected designs by prominent architects
with little regard for local input or regional
aesthetic preferences. The resulting Federal
architecture sometimes impresses the architectural
elite, but not the American people who the buildings
are meant to serve. Many of these new Federal buildings
are not even visibly identifiable as civic buildings.
It is time to update the policies guiding Federal
architecture to address these problems and ensure that
architects designing Federal buildings serve their
clients, the American people.
Sec. 2. Policy. (a) Applicable Federal public buildings
should uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the
human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command
respect from the general public. They should also be
visually identifiable as civic buildings and, as
appropriate, respect regional architectural heritage.
Architecture--particularly traditional and classical
architecture--that meets the criteria set forth in this
subsection is the preferred architecture for applicable
Federal public buildings. In the District of Columbia,
classical architecture shall be the preferred and
default architecture for Federal public buildings
absent exceptional factors necessitating another kind
of architecture.
(b) Where the architecture of applicable Federal
public buildings diverges from the preferred
architecture set forth in subsection (a) of this
section,
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great care and consideration must be taken to choose a
design that commands respect from the general public
and clearly conveys to the general public the dignity,
enterprise, vigor, and stability of America's system of
self-government.
(c) When renovating, reducing, or expanding
applicable Federal public buildings that do not meet
the criteria set forth in subsection (a) of this
section, the feasibility and potential expense of
building redesign to meet those criteria should be
examined. Where feasible and economical, such redesign
should be given substantial consideration, especially
with regard to the building's exterior.
Sec. 3. Definitions. For the purposes of this order:
(a) ``Applicable Federal public building'' means:
(i) all Federal courthouses and agency headquarters;
(ii) all Federal public buildings in the National Capital Region; and
(iii) all other Federal public buildings that cost or are expected to cost
more than $50 million in 2025 dollars to design, build, and finish, but
does not include infrastructure projects or land ports of entry.
(b) ``Brutalist architecture'' means the style of
architecture that grew out of the early 20th-century
modernist movement that is characterized by a massive
and block-like appearance with a rigid geometric style
and large-scale use of exposed poured concrete.
(c) ``Classical architecture'' means the
architectural tradition derived from the forms,
principles, and vocabulary of the architecture of Greek
and Roman antiquity, and as later developed and
expanded upon by such Renaissance architects as
Alberti, Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, and Palladio; such
Enlightenment masters as Robert Adam, John Soane, and
Christopher Wren; such 19th-century architects as
Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Robert Mills, and Thomas U.
Walter; and such 20th-century practitioners as Julian
Abele, Daniel Burnham, Rafael Carmoega, Charles F.
McKim, John Russell Pope, Julia Morgan, and the firm of
Delano and Aldrich. Classical architecture encompasses
such styles as Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek
Revival, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco.
(d) ``Deconstructivist architecture'' means the
style of architecture generally known as
``deconstructivism'' that emerged during the late 1980s
and that features fragmentation, disorder,
discontinuity, distortion, skewed geometry, and the
appearance of instability.
(e) ``General public'' means members of the public
who are not:
(i) artists, architects, engineers, art or architecture critics,
instructors or professors of art or architecture, or members of the
building industry; or
(ii) affiliated with any interest group, trade association, or any other
organization, whose membership is financially affected by decisions
involving the design, construction, or remodeling of public buildings.
(f) ``Public building'' has the meaning given that
term in section 3301(a)(5) of title 40, United States
Code.
(g) ``Traditional architecture'' includes classical
architecture, as defined herein, and also includes the
historic humanistic architecture such as Gothic,
Romanesque, Second Empire, Pueblo Revival, Spanish
Colonial, and other Mediterranean styles of
architecture historically rooted in various regions of
America.
(h) ``2025 dollars'' means dollars adjusted for
inflation using the Bureau of Economic Analysis's Gross
Domestic Product price deflator and using 2025 as the
base year.
Sec. 4. Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture.
(a) Executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall
to the extent practicable adhere to the following
Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture:
(i) The policy shall be to provide requisite and adequate facilities in an
architectural style and form that is distinguished and that will reflect
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the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of the American Government.
Because of their proven ability to meet these requirements, classical and
traditional architecture are preferred modes of architectural design. This
preference does not exclude the possibility of alternative styles in
appropriate circumstances. Major emphasis should be placed on the choice of
designs that embody architectural excellence. Specific attention should be
paid to the possibilities of incorporating into such designs qualities that
reflect the regional architectural traditions of that part of the Nation in
which buildings are located. Where appropriate, fine art should be
incorporated in the designs, with emphasis on the work of living American
artists. Designs shall adhere to sound construction practice and utilize
materials, methods, and equipment of proven dependability. Buildings shall
be economical to build, operate, and maintain, and should be accessible to
the handicapped.
(ii) Design must flow from the needs of the Government and the aspirations
and preferences of the American people to the architectural profession, and
not vice versa. Competitions for the design of Federal buildings should be
held where appropriate. The advice of distinguished architects practiced in
classical or traditional architecture should, as a rule, be sought prior to
the award of important design contracts.
(iii) The choice and development of the building site should be considered
the first step of the design process. This choice should be made in
cooperation with local agencies. Special attention should be paid to the
general ensemble of streets and public places of which Federal buildings
will form a part. Where possible, buildings should be located so as to
permit a generous development of landscape.
Sec. 5. GSA Actions. (a) The Administrator of General
Services (Administrator) shall adhere to the policies
and principles set forth in sections 2 and 4 of this
order, and shall expeditiously update GSA policies and
procedures to incorporate such policies and principles
and advance the purposes of this order.
(b) The Administrator shall:
(i) ensure that GSA architects whose duties include reviewing, assisting
with, or approving the selection of architects or designs for applicable
Federal public buildings have formal training in, or substantial and
significant experience with, classical or traditional architecture;
(ii) create the position of senior advisor for architectural design, for an
individual with specialized experience in classical architecture, to help
develop GSA procedures, advise on architectural standards, and provide
guidance during design evaluations or design juries;
(iii) where the design of an applicable Federal public building is selected
pursuant to a design-build competition under section 3309 of title 41,
United States Code, list experience with classical or traditional
architecture as specialized experience and technical competence in the
phase-one solicitation, and give substantive weight to these factors when
evaluating which offerors will be advanced to phase two; and
(iv) consistent with sections 4302 and 4312 of title 5, United States Code,
make advancing the purposes and implementing the policies of this order a
critical performance element in the individual performance plans of the
Chief Architect of GSA and appropriate subordinate employees in the GSA
Public Buildings Service involved in selecting designs for applicable
Federal public buildings.
(c) Where GSA intends to select a building design
pursuant to a design competition, the Administrator
shall actively recruit architectural firms and, as
applicable, designers with experience in classical and
traditional architecture to enter such competition and
shall, to the extent practicable, ensure that multiple
designs in such modes are advanced to the final
evaluation round.
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(d) In the event the Administrator proposes to
approve a design for a new applicable Federal public
building that diverges from the preferred architecture
set forth in subsection 2(a) of this order, including
Brutalist or Deconstructivist architecture or any
design derived from or related to these types of
architecture, the Administrator shall notify the
President through the Assistant to the President for
Domestic Policy not less than 30 days before GSA could
reject such design without incurring substantial
expenditures. Such notification shall set forth the
reasons the Administrator proposes to approve such
design, including:
(i) a detailed explanation of why the Administrator believes selecting such
design is justified, with particular focus on whether such design is as
beautiful and reflective of the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability
of the American system of self-government as alternative designs using
preferred architecture;
(ii) the total expected cost of adopting the proposed design, including
estimated maintenance and replacement costs throughout its expected
lifecycle; and
(iii) a description of the designs using preferred architecture seriously
considered for such project and the total expected cost of adopting such
designs, including estimated maintenance and replacement costs throughout
their expected lifecycles.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
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(d) The costs for publication of this order shall
be borne by the General Services Administration.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 28, 2025.
[FR Doc. 2025-16928
Filed 9-2-25; 11:15 am]
Billing code 6820-61-P