WHAT IS “BEAUTIFUL” ?

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 12 Noon WPKN 89.5 FM wpkn.orgCensorship comes in many forms. We censor ourselves at family gatherings on politics. We cannot say prohibited words on WPKN radio shows. We even try to limit what can be taught, read at a library, or spoken about in public forums.For the second time in four years, the Federal Government will try to censor what it builds. The first time the end of the Trump Administration the desire to limit new federal construction to “classical” and “traditional” aesthetics. That declaration was rescinded immediately upon the Biden Administration took office. The second Trump Administration re-wrote in matching language for this declaration – announced one day after the President’s isecond nauguration:“Federal public buildings should be visually identifiable as civic buildings and respect regional, traditional, and classical architectural heritage in order to uplift and beautify public spaces and ennoble the United States and our system of self-government…”This is code language for “No Contemporary, Modernist or Non-Traditional Building shall be built for federally financed building projects.”The “Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture” will be revised so that the General Services Administration will recommend rejection of any architectural design to the President of the United States that is not “regional. traditional and classical”. Who decides what is “regional, traditional and classical”? Friends of the President.Why does a new President do aesthetic censorship? Why is there an immediate sense that Political Correctness now extends to Aesthetic Correctness?Three great thought leaders in architecture will talk about Censorship In Architecture In 2025 – architects Michael Imber of Austin, Robert Orr and Peter Newman of Connecticut.