Today a group of architects from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Historic Resources Committee sent the next architect victim up for the East Wing of the White House replacement Ballroom design a similar letter to the first architect victim on November 21st. Of course the bromance between Trump and John McCrery, AIA fell apart quickly and we expect Shalom Baranes to just be the next in line for the president’s wrath. The letter and an article by Daniel Roche of The Architect’s Newspaper was published today.
You’ll note that we added some additional points for clarification and those are as follows:
The failure of the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and the United States Commission of Fine Arts (USCFA ) to defend the East Wing through no fault of their own since a majority of the NCPC were replaced with Trump loyalists. The USCFA was gutted totally of all members by the current regime and to date have not been filled.
The fact that this award of a contract for architectural design to a sole source goes against the laws of the Federal Government and by law should be issued as a Request for Proposal.
The fact that the president is accepting donations for his ballroom and the donors are expecting quid pro quo.
The newly revealed fact that the Trump administration has downgraded our architectural schooling and profession to a non-professional status and no architect in the US or worldwide should accept a commission from this regime.
We will not stop our movement to hold the current president accountable for his immoral, illegal, despicable destruction of the East Wing of the White House, the “People’s House”! Nor stopping the out of scale, atrocious ballroom!
Samuel Duff Combs, AIA, NCARB, Architect
The link to today’s article is below: