Posted on 02/10/2025 5:40:00 AM PST by MtnClimber
Concerning President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring new federal buildings to show a preference for "classical architectural style" which includes Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, and Art Deco, referencing the architectural traditions of Greek and Roman antiquity. . .
Behold (above) the federal building and courthouse in Tuscaloosa, Alabama by HBRA Architects. And, no, it was not conceived when Andy Jackson was fighting the Battle of Emuckfaw against the “Red Stick” Creek Indians in 1814. Rather, it went up in 2012, a rare example of neoclassical design executed in our time.
For the most part, though, the decades-long trend in American civic architecture has been for sui generis one-off, tortured-genius, para-metaphysical, high-tech, in-your-grille stunt buildings commissioned to shock and confound the middle class (Épater le bourgeois, as the French dubbed this maneuver).
These generally horrified the public (as intended), as well as perplexing and confusing them, making their interaction with the building a form of punishment. Often it was difficult to even discern where the entrance of the building was, or where to go once you managed to get inside. For instance, the recent San Francisco Federal building by Tom Mayne of Morphosis Architects, below, designed in the style of a dashboard from an alien spacecraft:
At its worst, you got the conjunction of malign form and evil function, as concretized in Washington’s J. Edgar Hoover Building, home office (mother ship) of the FBI, below:
Kind of looks like a giant stroopwafel jammed under a coffee table. You can be sure that little good came out of it, especially the past four years, and probably the whole six decades of its miserable existence. FBI-Director nominee Kash Patel went so far as to propose it be turned into “a Museum of the Deep State.” Well, yes. Perfect!
Below, see another new-ish civic structure dressed in neo-Georgian formality: the Alpharetta, GA, City Hall by David M. Schwartz architects — granted, not a federal building, but proof that trad proportions and details can be done well, where there’s a will to get’er done. Nice, huh. Dignified. Serene, confident, legible. . . reflecting what is to be desired in a polity, sanity and grace.
Why trad design, you might ask? Initially, with our nation’s founding, there was a wish to express our national ethos in architecture that denoted the democratic spirit of Ancient Greece melded with the order of the early Roman republic. And so, you got this bold neoclassicism for over a hundred years, climaxing in the US Supreme Court’s headquarters, completed in 1935, below:
There are hidden charms in this neoclassicism. You may notice that the building is organized with a base, a middle and a top (or capitol). Indeed, not just the whole, but its parts ( e.g., the columns) express this tripartite organization. This expresses the organization of the human body, with feet and legs, a trunk, and a head. Thus, it reflects our essential humanness back at us and confers dignity in the works of man and mankind itself.
Sure there are other ways of making buildings, but are they expressing what we want to say about ourselves? Might we want to suggest that there is a sacred order to the human project, and be reminded of it forcefully in our monumental buildings?
Eyesore of the Month Since 1998
For the first time ever, you can now binge-read and comment on the complete “Eyesore of the Month” archive going all the way back to this feature’s debut in March 1998. That’s more than 300 architectural blunders, abortions and abominations to make you chortle, snort and guffaw. Click here to read them all.
Quite a clash between sanity and insanity.
The Alabama building doesn’t seem like a great execution, but the concept is right.
The battle of Emuckfaw was started by Lt. Col. Fuddermucker.
But if you haven’t had a stroopwafel, they are recommended. Yum. Unlike the modern monstrosities Kunstler highlights....
That guy must’ve been a real badass morterforker!
That last one is just begging to be covered in green energy-efficient solar panels which might actually provide electricity a couple of months a year, though not enough.
[[Emuckfaw]]
Hey now, this is a family website
Check out the De Young Museum in San Francisco, before and after. A huge middle finger to the decency of mankind, as intended.
Luftwaffe Flak Tower 
For those of you who think he is exaggerating:
It could double for a SpaceX rocket launch platform…
Is that the one where the Germans had 4 AA guns mounted on top?
Yes. This was in Berlin. Each corner mounted a dual 120mm flak gun.
Most of them are still there. Those towers were downright resilient:
Good find. Thank you!
Yes, 4 mounts for their large (longer range/higher altitude) flak guns.
Smaller 88 mm (3-1/2 inch, faster-firing) shorter range, higher speed flak guns around the big ones.
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