The Politics of Architecture and Federal Buildings
The modern era has given us some stinkers, but imposing a particular style could be a mistake. July 5, 2023 3:46 pm ET The San Francisco Federal Building. Photo: Alamy I agree with Myron Magnet (“Government Buildings Don’t Have to be Ugly,” op-ed, June 27) that the early years of the U.S. produced some of our finest federal buildings, most in the Greco-Roman classical style. He is also right to say that the modern era has given us some stinkers, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington. But I disagree with his support for the Rubio-Banks legislation that would impose the classical style on most federal buildings. Had this act been in place for the last 100 years, we would have been deprived of all the terrific post offices, courthouses and custom houses of the 1930s, designed in the Art Moderne style. We also wouldn’t have such
The San Francisco Federal Building.
Photo: Alamy
I agree with Myron Magnet (“Government Buildings Don’t Have to be Ugly,” op-ed, June 27) that the early years of the U.S. produced some of our finest federal buildings, most in the Greco-Roman classical style. He is also right to say that the modern era has given us some stinkers, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington.
But I disagree with his support for the Rubio-Banks legislation that would impose the classical style on most federal buildings. Had this act been in place for the last 100 years, we would have been deprived of all the terrific post offices, courthouses and custom houses of the 1930s, designed in the Art Moderne style. We also wouldn’t have such marvelous modernist and contemporary structures as Mies van der Rohe’s Chicago Federal Center, Richard Meier’s courthouse in Phoenix and Carol Ross Barney’s Oklahoma City Federal Building.
Let’s not impose a particular style on federal buildings, but rather select the best architects to do them in a diversity of styles—and insist on designs of the highest quality.
Bill Hinchliff
Chicago
By the time I’d finished Mr. Magnet’s op-ed, there was smoke coming out of my ears. His backward-looking notion was embraced by the Trump administration and condemned vehemently by employees of the National Park Service, state historical commissions, the American Institute of Architects and the historic preservation community. The other government leader who comes to mind for mandating an architectural style, along with dictating what kind of public art was acceptable, was last seen running Nazi Germany. What is ennobling and uplifting is in the eyes and heart of the beholder.
Lynn Smiledge
Boston
Ms. Smiledge is a member and former chair of the Boston Landmarks Commission.
Across the street from the newest “modern” federal building in San Francisco, which was pictured in Mr. Magnet’s op-ed, stands the James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse, a lovely building completed in 1905 in the beaux-arts style. I worked there from 1975 to 1987. Originally built as the Post Office and Federal Courthouse, it features corridors and courtrooms finished in marble, with Byzantine-style mosaics inlaid in the walls. The Great Hall on the third floor rivals anything that I have seen in Europe. It looks like a veritable Palace of Justice. The contrast couldn’t be clearer.
Roger Ritter
Alexandria, Va.
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