Monthly Archives: March 2025

I am Justin Shubow

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.

Interviewed by Le Point: “Justin Shubow, Donald Trump’s ‘Mr. Architecture'”

Le Point, a French weekly newspaper, published an interview of me as well as a companion news article, “Donald Trump’s Major Offensive Against ‘Just Really Ugly’ Architecture.” To quote the interview (via Google translate): He is Donald Trump’s Mr. Architecture. Appointed chairman of the … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, beauty, Brutalism, civic architecture, classical architecture, classicism, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Étienne-Louis Boullée, Executive Order on federal architecture, FBI building, federal architecture, Forrestal building, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General Services Administration, GSA's Design Excellence Program, Guiding Principles of Federal Architecture, Harris Poll, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Modernism, National Civic Art Society, President Donald Trump, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, ugliness, Washington, D.C. Metro | Leave a comment

My Washington Post Op-Ed: the Brutalist Forrestal Building, Headquarters of the Dept. of Energy, Must Be Demolished

The March 12, 2025 Washington Post featured an op-ed by Victoria Coates and me: Here’s One Federal Building We Could — and Should — Scrap The Forrestal Building’s form is impeding its function as home of the Energy Department. By Victoria Coates and Justin Shubow Victoria Coates, … Continue reading

Posted in Brutalism, Department of Energy, Executive Order on federal architecture, Forrestal building, Smithsonian | Leave a comment