Washington needs more monuments like Trump’s bold new Triumphal Arch

The Commission of Fine Arts has officially approved President Trump’s plan to build a triumphal arch on the outskirts of Washington, above the Memorial Bridge and across from the Lincoln Memorial.

The project, carried out by the Ministry of the Interior, envisages a triumphal arch 250 feet high, adorned with eagles and crowned with a statue of the Lady of Liberty. It will be a monument to American exceptionalism and a tribute to America’s 250th birthday next July. The Ark is a President Trump classic: it says that America is not ashamed of its greatness and that we are ready to build things worthy of our great nation.

It’s also an encouraging sign of the Trump administration’s continued commitment to reviving classical architecture. Last summer, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Making Federal Architecture Great Again,” which directs the General Services Administration to ensure that new federal buildings “elevate and beautify public spaces” and “ennoble the United States.” The arch is the latest expression of the movement to reclaim beauty as a civic value, and I am proud to support it.

HOW WE FULFILL TRUMP’S VISION OF MAKING FEDERAL ARCHITECTURE BEAUTIFUL AGAIN

The elites who mock the arch would have you believe that grand civic monuments are somehow gaudy or, even less credibly, fascistic. The New Yorker, one of the snobbiest magazines in circulation, recently accused President Trump’s arch of belonging to an “architecture of autocracy.”

But most Americans instinctively understand that beauty in public spaces is not overbearing; Public beauty is a gift and a crucial element of our republican heritage and tradition. The design of the Arc de Triomphe complements the classical, democratic architecture of the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial.

Conversely, the recent modernist architecture of Washington, D.C., which the Trump administration aims to supplant, is ugly, authoritarian, and sticks out like a sore thumb. The J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building is a brutalist disaster. The Hubert Humphrey Building looks like a Soviet-era nightmare. Dr. Ben Carson called the HUD building “ten stories of basement.” These hideous buildings in the heart of the nation’s capital lower expectations of our government and make citizens feel small.

The Arc de Triomphe completely reverses this message. He says America is great and we’re not ashamed to show it.

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I look forward to seeing the construction of the Arc de Triomphe over the coming months and hope that it will be one of many projects, along with the East Wing Ballroom, that will restore beauty to Federal architecture. Earlier this year, I introduced the Federal Civic Architecture Beautification Act, to codify into law what President Trump has already established through executive order. My bill will ensure that classic buildings like the Arc de Triomphe will be built in Washington, DC and across the country for many years to come.

Because beautiful architecture shouldn’t be just for Washington residents, and that hasn’t been the case in the past. I grew up in a trailer park in Columbia City, Indiana. My neighborhood didn’t look like the National Mall, but I didn’t have to travel far to find similar buildings. The Whitley County Courthouse, built in 1888, sat right in the middle of our town square, its dome rising above everything else. Every time I saw him, I felt inspired. This courthouse told me that my city mattered, that the law mattered, that something bigger than daily life was happening inside these limestone walls.

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Congress should enshrine these architectural principles into law, so that more Americans can enjoy monuments like the Arc de Triomphe and courthouses like Whitley County’s.

These are beautiful buildings that will last. They are worth it, just like this country.

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