Make America Beautiful Again, by Francis Lee

By Francis Lee, Catholic Exchange, Dec. 31, 2020

Francis Lee is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy. He has served on two deployments in the South China Sea as part of Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Japan. His writing has appeared in the National Catholic Register, Catholic World Report, and OnePeterFive.

Despite the persistent opposition and public protest of the architectural elites against a proposed executive order titled Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again, first obtained and reported by the Architectural Record eleven months ago, President Trump, on December 21, signed the executive order titled Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, which declares that “traditional and classical architecture” is the “preferred architecture for applicable Federal public buildings.”

Acknowledging the possibility of new building designs that do not fit the favored category, yet still beautify the public square, the executive order—to the great surprise of the establishment—makes an exception. It allows contemporary designs “that command respect from the general public and clearly convey to the general public the dignity, enterprise, vigor, and stability of America’s system of self-government” a seat in the selection process, overseen by the General Services Administration, for future Federal public building projects. …

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