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World Monuments Fund Responds to White House Executive Order “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture”

The White House executive order “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture” presents a vision of beauty in architecture that is antithetical to World Monuments Fund’s (WMF) 55 years of experience partnering with governments and communities around the globe to safeguard their most extraordinary architectural examples. 

The executive order mandates classical or traditional architecture as the preferred style for U.S. federal courthouses and other federal buildings, effectively limiting the continuance of the nation’s rich legacy of architectural innovation and diminishing the voice of communities in the design process. WMF joins others in opposing the executive order for it enforces an ideal that suppresses the full story of American architecture and the diverse, creative spirit that underlies it. The nation’s architecture should aim to represent the spectrum of experiences and aesthetic of its people.