The American Institute of Architects has called on members to sign an open letter to the Trump Administration after a plan to introduce an order that all federal buildings should be built in the "classical architectural style" was discovered.
The AIA released the statement and online petition for the White House yesterday, shortly after the Architectural Record revealed it had obtained a draft of the order, called Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again.
If approved, it would update the 1962 Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture to make classical architecture the required style for any US federal courthouse.
The AIA said that it "strongly and unequivocally" opposed the change, which would also affect federal public buildings costing over $50 million (£38 million). "A top-down directive on architectural style"
"The AIA strongly condemns the move to enforce a top-down directive on architectural style," the organisation wrote in the open letter.
"Design decisions should be left to the designer and the community, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC," it added. "All architectural styles have value and all communities have the right to weigh in on the government buildings meant to serve them."

According to the AIA, "classical architecture" as defined by the White House is derived from classical Greek and Roman architecture. There are some "allowances for 'traditional architectural style'", wh...