Beauty makes a return

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 15th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a revival of classical architecture.

Growing numbers of American parents are sending their children to classical schools in a search for truth, beauty, and goodness.

In turn, the schools want physical surroundings that reflect those values.

BROWN: To them, rolling back the bad ideas of the 1960s and 1970s also means rolling back that era’s ugly architecture.

WORLD senior writer Emma Freire has the story.

EMMA FREIRE: Washington D.C. is full of modern architecture.

PBS: Everything in L’enfant Plaza is this stacked layering of infrastructure. So you have buildings on top, but then there’s a parking garage, freeway on-ramps, and below all of that, the metro system.

The Cold War ushered in the Brutalist style to the city—seen with the FBI headquarters and of course the entire metro system.

But that may start to change.

TRUMP: Well, we want to see beautiful buildings.

In August, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Making Federal architecture beautiful again.” It requires that federal buildings in Washington be built in the classical style when possible.

TRUMP: It’s just a standard. We want to have a good standard.

Many people in the classical education movement agree with him. Jeremy Wayne Tate is one of them. He’s the founder and CEO of the Classic Learning Test, a classical alternative to the SAT and ACT. His organization works out of the Pinkney Callahan house in historical downtown Annapolis, Maryland. 

It’s a red-brick building in the Georgian architectural style.

TATE: It was built during the American Revolution, early 1780s...

Classical education has made a comeback in recent years. One study found that between 2019 and 2023, over 260 new classical schools launched nationwide.

The Pinkney Callahan house provides a nice work environment for Tate and his staff. But it’s more than that.

TATE: We wanted to get into a space that kind of reflected what we're doing. Physical space communicates so much.

Tate believes our culture’s turn away from classical education went hand-in-hand with rejecting classical architecture.

TATE: The turn in architecture really began in the early 1960s. You look at especially churches. Churches built before 1960 tend to be beautiful and done in the old style. Churches built in the 70s: it's like, ‘what happened there?’

It’s during this same time period that there was a move away from classical education and toward secular, progressive education.

TATE: So I find it amazing that all of the great cathedrals, with no exceptions, were built by architects who had received themselves a classical education.

ARNN: Our central campus is two quads…

Larry Arnn is the president of Hillsdale College in Michigan. He’s making classical architecture on campus a priority.

ARNN: Everything in it is going to be harmonious with everything else and in the classical style. And that should be finished in two years - round numbers. The major things are under construction now.

Under Arnn’s leadership, Hillsdale opened a chapel designed by architect Duncan Stroik, and inspired by the English church, St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

CHOIR: I was glad when they said unto me we will go

It was dedicated in 2019 with a large ceremony featuring music from the college choir. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke during the dedication and pointed out why the building itself matters.

THOMAS: The chapel's enduring beauty highlights the transcendence, the sovereignty, and the grace of God. It truly illustrates how architectural design can reflect the character of God and evoke a sense of reverence for his majesty.

Arnn also takes his inspiration from Hillsdale’s original building, Central Hall, which was dedicated in 1853.

ARNN: It is built in a development on the Federalist style, which is a development on the classical style. And the campus looked like that, that whatever was on the campus was harmonious with that.

But just like in D.C., the 1960s and 70s saw the addition of modern buildings to Hillsdale’s campus. 

Arnn is working to get rid of them.

He stresses that classical architecture doesn’t have to mean white columns and marble buildings. He believes classical architecture has three main components. A building must fit a human scale, it has to function for the activities that will happen inside it, and it has to harmonize with its location.

ARNN: It actually is a form of obedience. It's not right because I say it's right, it's right because it's right; in proportion and function and appearance

But it comes at a steep cost. Hillsdale spent 28.5 million dollars on the chapel. And many fledgling K-12 classical schools don’t have anywhere near that kind of budget. They have to take whatever facility they can afford.

ARNN: It’s a new movement, it is growing very fast. They don't have the dough. I mean, one of the best classical schools is in what used to be a Kroger's. There’s shopping malls going broke, I bet there'll be classic classical schools grow up in those. You do what you can do, right? But they would be improved if they had themselves a classy building.

Arnn is happy to see more people share his passion for classical architecture. And he’s hopeful for the future.

ARNN: You wouldn't sacrifice the ability to continue for it, but we're here to learn beautiful things, and it's better to do that in a beautiful atmosphere

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Emma Freire in Annapolis, Maryland.

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