Architecture of the human spirit

Lincoln Memorial, Wahington, D.C.

Standing on Capitol Avenue in front of the Diocese of Cheyenne, visitors to Cheyenne can take in a wide-ranging sample of Capitol architecture. Look to the left and you see the stately lines of the Wyoming Supreme Court. Farther left you will see ennobling and inspiring Capitol Dome framed by the trees of Capitol Avenue. Continue sweeping left until your back is to the Diocese and your view is obstructed by the imposing concrete mass of the Joseph C. O’Mahoney Federal Center.

Built in 1964, the Federal Center is typical of the modernist buildings that the federal government began to impose on cities across America after World War II. Architectural purists may scorn me for saying so, but the building is neither beautiful nor inspiring. Those with a trained eye will surely point out a thousand interesting details, but none of them can draw the eye and command immediate respect like the Capitol or the Supreme Court Building.

That’s the objective nature of beauty. The common man can recognize it immediately even while a lifetime of study may fail to define it fully. The same is true of inspiration, nobility and respect. Like other common senses, the common man has the capacity to perceive transcendent qualities even if he lacks the vocabulary to define them.

The founding fathers knew this and planned accordingly. According to President Trump’s Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture, signed December 21, 2020, “They wanted America’s public buildings to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue.” That’s an objective and measurable goal that they wanted to accomplish through the art of architecture.

To accomplish this, “President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson consciously modeled the most important buildings in Washington, D.C., on the classical architecture of ancient Athens and Rome. They sought to use classical architecture to visually connect our contemporary Republic with the antecedents of democracy in classical antiquity, reminding citizens not only of their rights but also their responsibilities in maintaining and perpetuating its institutions.”

Pantheon in Athens, Greece

Before reading these lines, I must confess that I had given little thought to the purpose and function of public architecture. Perhaps I took it for granted. Was the look of Washington, D.C. merely a thoughtless whim? It turns out that our founding fathers were not prisoners of their own times and personal tastes. On the contrary, they deliberately chose the appearance of federal buildings “to inspire the American people and encourage civic virtue.”

Public buildings are the kind of art that is impossible to avoid. You can choose not to see a movie, or to patronize an art gallery. You can spend your entire life and never go to a concert. But government buildings are unavoidably public monuments. There is no choice but to see them, and to see them is to be affected by them.

Your heart is affected differently when approaching a massive concrete block than it is when passing through tall marble columns. You may not notice it until the experience is brought to your attention, but architects have studied these effects and design buildings with these principles in mind.

For the first century and a half of America’s existence, an unbroken tradition followed the intention of Washington and Jefferson. America’s public buildings called forth the nobility of the Roman republic and the Greek citizen. These familiar shapes filled hearts with pride, lifted minds to noble thoughts and assured individuals that their God-given rights would be recognized.

But, shortly after the second World War that changed. America had just defeated the brutal modernist governments that reduced their citizens to mere machines. Fifty million humans had been crushed under the wheels of war. Yet, in bitter irony, we brought their architecture home and began to design public buildings that looked more like crushing factories than ennobled halls.

The Executive Order signed before Christmas is a deliberate reversal of more than six decades of inhuman architecture. It is a return to the ethics of the founding fathers. It embodies the simple assertion: “Federal public buildings should uplift and beautify public spaces, inspire the human spirit, ennoble the United States, and command respect from the general public.”

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, my heart is encouraged and inspired to know that a new generation of architects will be unleashed to construct buildings for our children and grandchildren that speak to the common man about uncommon virtues. They promise to draw on the wisdom of the past while guiding our way into the future.

Pres. Trump signing the Order

Beauty, inspiration, nobility and respect resonate in every human heart. They should not be set aside as relics of the past but celebrated as beacons of the American spirit. I applaud President Trump’s architectural vision for bringing federal architecture back to its roots.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, 1/1/21.