[Duffstuff129]

I can't help but like a decision like this - I think if we are all being honest, we could imagine that voters, in whose hands the decision should more or less be made, would prefer classical architecture for their federal buildings over any other style.

I do think that in some ways the supremacy of modern architecture, which has never been as popular with the public as classical styles, is in its own way undemocratic - modern architecture is obviously fashionable among architects, but the voting, tax-paying public seems not to prefer it. One can look at a list of America's favorite buildings as voted by the average person - they are mostly at least as ornate as Art Deco and many of them are, indeed, classically-styled.

For the same reason that people decry suburbs, which seem to have no historical sense and favor (perceived) convenience over urban forms that had greater roots in the past, maybe there is a reason to consciously reject, even somewhat arbitrarily, modern styles that consciously divorce themselves from history.