In envisioning how Federal architecture will look moving forward, the order cites examples of modern architecture it finds abhorrent, laying blame on the GSA’s 1962 Guiding Principles for Federal Architecture, which called for the use of contemporary designs from modern-leaning architects.
The results, Trump's order claims, are buildings that are widely unpopular with citizens and are not easily identifiable as civic buildings, creating instead a structure that “sometimes impresses the architectural elite, but not the American people who the buildings are meant to serve.”
The White House specifically criticizes the San Francisco Federal Building, designed by Thom Mayne of the firm Morphosis and completed in 2007. Disparaged for describing his designs as “art-for-art’s-sake,” Trump aligns Mayne with the architectural and intellectual elite, who do not care about the needs and preferences of the average citizen.