In the words of Hitler: ‘We build in order to fortify our authority’
As Renée Loth points out in her excellent column “Trump targets brutalist architecture” (Opinion, March 7), art tends to reflect (or react to) the culture of its time. So, although I am no fan of brutalist architecture, I appreciate its contribution to art history.
The supreme irony, of course, is that the style of architecture that Donald Trump admires, with its symmetry and classical features, is meant to communicate dignity, calm, and stability — in short, everything that this administration is not. That may be why this president prefers it so emphatically: because the exterior style masks the chaos within.
“If Germany hadn’t lost [World War I], I would have become a great architect — something like Michelangelo, instead of a politician,” Hitler was said to have mused, exposing an ego more towering than any external structure; he also understood the impact of architecture: “We build in order to fortify our authority.”
In decreeing and signing the memorandum “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” it would seem that Trump agrees. He appears to have overlooked the fact that there may not be enough civil servants left after his mass firings to fill the new federal buildings he envisions.
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Price Grisham
Salem
Trump shows his tunnel vision in imposing a stylistic sameness
I read Renée Loth’s column about Donald Trump’s contempt for brutalism and how, in his view, anything that is different from what appeals to him should be abolished, scorned, or ridiculed.
I graduated in the 1970s with a degree in fine arts from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, whose campus was designed in the 1960s by Paul Rudolph, one of the renowned brutalist architects of that period. Other visual design students and I appreciated the bold use of space and design. It definitely was not a classical style but it was beautiful in its uniqueness.
It seems that Trump would love everything to look the same so that it would conform to his taste, which is indicative of tunnel vision in general. While I can also appreciate the classical architectural style he favors, I think of how boring everything would be if places — and people — on this earth looked exactly the same. Our culture, well-being, and society as a whole would regress.
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Ann Marie Simeone
Reading
