President of the National Civic Art Society, a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. that promotes the classical and humanistic tradition in public art and architecture. Eleventh Chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency comprising seven presidential appointees who are the aesthetic guardians of Washington.
On May 19, 2024 at Georgetown University, I delivered a lecture on “Roger Scruton’s Philosophy of Architecture” at a conference on Scruton sponsored by the Center for American Culture and Ideas, the American Enterprise Institute, the Ethics & Public Policy Center, the National Civic Art Society, and others.
The leading philosopher of architecture of his time, Roger Scruton spent his life thinking and writing about the aesthetics of the built environment. He published such books as The Aesthetics of Architecture and The Classical Vernacular: Architectural Principles in an Age of Nihilism, along with numerous pieces of popular journalism on the subject. A staunch foe of Modernist architecture, Scruton argued for the superiority of the classical tradition, which he believed to be unparalleled in its capacity to produce beauty and harmony, and to make us feel at home in the world. Controversy exploded in Britain when he was appointed chairman of the UK government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, which addressed the poor design of homes and places. A similar controversy has erupted in recent years in America as both President Trump and Congress have promoted classical and traditional design for federal buildings and U.S. courthouses. This talk will survey Scruton’s ideas about architecture as well as how his followers should respond to recent events in America.
On August 21, 2024, TomKlingenstein.com published an essay by me on beauty, virtue, and American classical architecture titled “Make America Beautiful Again.” Senator Marco Rubio called it a “must read piece.” To quote:
The Victorian art critic John Ruskin thought that “every form of noble architecture is in some sort the embodiment of the Polity, Life, History, and the Religious Faith of nations.” It makes sense, then, that throughout history statesmen and other leaders have concerned themselves with the design of symbolically important edifices. Unsurprisingly, when there exists disagreement about political and cultural values, the choice of architecture of noble buildings — including civic buildings — becomes a contested issue. But the intensity of past debates pales in comparison with the debate over political architecture today.
[…]
In a 1784 letter to a 28-year-old John Trumbull, who would later mature into the lauded “painter of the American Revolution,” Edmund Burke emphasized the precedence of public edifices in a new country: “You belong to a young nation, which will soon want public buildings; these must be erected before the decorations of painting and sculpture will be required. … Qualify yourself to superintend their erection. Decorate them also, if you will.”
Like the Virginia Capitol, buildings such as the U.S. Capitol, Treasury Department, and Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in New York City demonstrate the exceptional qualities of classical architecture: its beauty, harmony, and timelessness stem from its symmetry, balance, organized complexity, ornament and detailing, capacity for grandeur without arrogance, evocation of order without capital-R Rationalism, and grounding in human proportion and human experience.
Classical architecture is not just about unparalleled aesthetic excellence; it is the architecture of American democracy, the style most associated with our system of government and our highest ideals, the architecture of civic virtue. It is also an architecture conducive to the rootedness of the polis, of the mutual bonds of citizenship extending across generations. In an era of presentism, classical architecture encourages Americans to think in centuries. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan told the Senate in 1983, “We must not preserve buildings out of a fear that we have lost the ability to create things of grace and beauty. … I wish to preserve things as an example of what we were and will be, not what we were and longer can be.”
Classical public buildings make us feel proud of our country; they make us confident in our dignity as citizens of a great Republic. As art historian Vincent Scully said about New York’s original Pennsylvania Station, a Beaux Arts masterpiece inspired by an ancient Roman public bath, “One entered the city like a god.” Modernist architecture diminishes us; it would have us forget the past. Epitomizing Modernism, Brutalist public buildings thunder at us, “Mortal Man, Thou Art Nothing.”
We must preserve classical architecture most of all because it is ours. While there are other noble styles around the world, it is American classicism that is our heritage. It perpetuates and strengthens our wise system of government; unlike in countries such as France, now in its Fourth Republic, America has had only one regime, a single Republic that extends back to the War of Independence. In the face of those who wish to tear down that regime, we must protect and construct edifices that symbolize it.
We must not forget that an everlasting Republic is buttressed by sempiternal beauty. . . .
On August 9, 2024, I had the pleasure of giving a talk on “Citizenship and Public Architecture” at First Things magazine’s intellectual retreat at the Union League Club in New York City. To quote:
[T]he classical tradition recrudesced in early American public buildings, but it also flourished in the era of Beaux-Arts. Beginning in the mid to late 19th century, American Beaux-Arts architects were trained in France in the classical tradition, which they adapted for their era. Using modern construction techniques such as steel skeletons, they demonstrated that the classical tradition applied to a wide variety of building types, including at every level of scale—even the skyscraper. Magnificent Beaux-Arts public buildings in America including the Boston Public Library, the New York Public Library, and the campus of Columbia University.
The great American urban planner and architect Daniel Burnham said, “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” The Beaux-Arts revolution in America was jolted into existence in in 1893, when Burnham orchestrated the World’s Columbia Exhibition, also known as the Chicago World Fair. It was a collection of enormous temporary buildings with a common classical vocabulary arranged on a grand plan. The architecture was inspired by ancient precedents, but also those from the Renaissance and more recent French design. The plan incorporated vistas punctuated by symmetry, eye-catching monuments, axial avenues, uniform cornice heights, and harmonious ensembles of buildings. The so-called White City had a tremendous emotional and intellectual impact and changed American architecture and planning; the classical once again became the correct style for American political values. The exhibition launched the City Beautiful movement, a period in which it was thought that the design of cities—including monumental architecture, public art, and planning, especially the incorporation of public parks—could encourage civic virtue, including the virtue of the common man.
The first and foremost example of the City Beautiful movement was the 1901 Plan for Washington, D.C. known as the McMillan Plan, named after the Senator who instigated and oversaw it. The McMillan Plan restored and extended Pierre L’Enfant’s rational, orderly design for the city by creating the National Mall and surrounding monumental core as we know it. Indeed, the McMillan Plan is arguably the greatest work of civic art in the modern era.
On September 7, 2024, I’ll be speaking at the University of Cambridge at a conference on “A New Path for Beauty: Shaping Tomorrow’s Institutions” sponsored by the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation. (I serve on their Board of Advisors.) My topic is “How Classical Architecture Can Unite Americans in an Otherwise Divided Time.” The other speakers on the panel are the Right Honourable Michael Gove, former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in the U.K. cabinet, and architect María Sánchez. Moderated by Samuel Hughes. For information, see here.
I discussed policy regarding federal architecture, including President Trump’s Executive Order that re-oriented federal architecture from Modernism to classical and traditional design. I said:
Although the Executive Order was rescinded [by President Biden], it has led to a major welcome development. Thanks to the leadership of Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, there is now pending in the House and Senate legislation titled the Beautifying Federal Civic Architecture Act. The legislation would essentially codify Trump’s Order and requires even more strongly the inclusion of public input. There are eight Senate co-sponsors so far, including J.D. Vance, Mike Lee, Roger Marshall, and Bill Hagerty. And there are eight co-sponsors in the House, including Elise Stefanik. Fox News gave the legislation good coverage, and Bloombergreported, “what was once a fringe campaign to restore classical aesthetics has grown into a mainstream revolt.” Demonstrating its support for the legislation, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by my organization titled “Government Buildings Don’t Have to Be Ugly.”
There is still more momentous news. I just learned that the 2024 GOP platform states that “Republicans will promote beauty in Public Architecture and . . . build cherished symbols of our Nation.” The platform also calls for making Washington, D.C. the most beautiful capital city. But for Trump’s Executive Order, this never would have happened.
I’ll be speaking on “Citizenship and Public Architecture” at First Things magazine’s intellectual retreat in New York City on August 9, 2024. You can register here.
On June 7, 2024, the National Civic Art Society, together with The Academy Of Philosophy & Letters, co-sponsored a lecture by C.J. Howard on “The Arrow of Aesthetics: Architecture’s Role in Cultural Formation Through Virtue.” Luke Sheahan and I made the introductions. You can watch the video here.
In May 2024, I gave a talk on ordinary people’s preferences in architecture at a Beauty and Ugliness in Architecture conference in Oslo, Norway. Many members of the Arkitekturupproret (Architectural Uprising), a grassroots rebellion against Modernist architecture, were there.
In my lecture, I highlighted the National Civic Art Society / Harris Poll survey of 2,000 adults finding that nearly three-quarters of Americans (72%) – including majorities across political, racial/ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic lines – prefer traditional architecture for U.S. courthouses and federal office buildings. For a Bloomberg News story on the survey, see “Classical or Modern Architecture? For Americans, It’s No Contest.”
On May 19, 2024 at Georgetown University, I’ll be giving a talk on “Roger Scruton’s Philosophy of Architecture” at a conference on Scruton sponsored by the Center for American Culture and Ideas, the American Enterprise Institute, the Ethics & Public Policy Center, the National Civic Art Society, and others. You can register here. Below please find the abstract of my talk:
The leading philosopher of architecture of his time, Roger Scruton spent his life thinking and writing about the aesthetics of the built environment. He published such books as The Aesthetics of Architecture and The Classical Vernacular: Architectural Principles in an Age of Nihilism, along with numerous pieces of popular journalism on the subject. A staunch foe of Modernist architecture, Scruton argued for the superiority of the classical tradition, which he believed to be unparalleled in its capacity to produce beauty and harmony, and to make us feel at home in the world. Controversy exploded in Britain when he was appointed chairman of the UK government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, which addressed the poor design of homes and places. A similar controversy has erupted in recent years in America as both President Trump and Congress have promoted classical and traditional design for federal buildings and U.S. courthouses. This talk will survey Scruton’s ideas about architecture as well as how his followers should respond to recent events in America.
I’m pleased to report that I’ll be giving a talk on ordinary people’s preferences in architecture at a conference in Oslo, Norway in May 2024. The theme of the conference is Beauty and Ugliness in Architecture. Other speakers include James Stevens Curl, Michael Diamant, Nikos Salingaros, Branko Mitrovic, and Nir Buras.
