Trump Fires Federal Design Board Ahead Of Ballroom, Arch Projects
As the Trump administration pursues a slate of large construction projects in the nation’s capital, it has dismantled the 115-year-old board that was created to review the design of such projects.
The administration has let go of the six commissioners that make up the Commission of Fine Arts, The Washington Post first reported.
“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump's America First Policies,” a White House official said in an emailed statement to Bisnow.
The presidentially selected, independent federal agency advises the White House, Congress and D.C. officials on federal and local government buildings, memorials, monuments and public spaces in the District, as well as some federal elements in Northern Virginia like the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.
It has historically been composed of seven experts in various fields, from architecture to urban design. The six members fired by the Trump administration were appointed by former President Joe Biden. The seventh, CFA Chair Billie Tsien, an architect Biden appointed in 2021, resigned earlier this year.
The firings come after the Trump administration replaced three members, including the head, of the National Capital Planning Commission, a project review body that oversees how federal lands are used.
It isn’t unprecedented for new presidents to replace the members of these review boards.
The Biden administration replaced four of the seven CFA members at the beginning of his term in 2021, arguing that it wanted to diversify the all-white, all-male board. That administration also removed two of Trump’s NCPC appointees, including the chairman, less than a month into his term.
But it comes ahead of some major projects the Trump administration is spearheading.
The White House’s East Wing was demolished last week — to the surprise of many architectural societies and preservationists around the country — to make way for the administration’s planned 90K SF ballroom, expected to cost $300M.
The administration is also planning an arch resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to be built somewhere across from the Lincoln Memorial ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary celebration.
And it is undertaking a remodeling of D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
A Monday post from Trump on Truth Social shows the arts center's new white exterior, which he said replaced “fake looking gold paint that was there for years.”
“Many major improvements are being made, including seating, carpeting, wall coverings, ceilings, chandeliers, stages, heating and A/C, etc., to what will soon be the finest Arts and Entertainment Center anywhere in the World,” he wrote on his social media platform.
Trump has been clear about his preference for classical architecture over more modernist designs. He issued an executive order in August laying out a plan for federal buildings to move away from modernist and brutalist designs in favor of Greco-Roman, art deco, beaux-arts and Georgian styles.
