Justin Shubow pushes classical architecture in Nashville speech

Former U.S. Commission of Fine Arts chairman Justin Shubow told a sold-out Nashville audience that U.S. public buildings should return to classical design, linking the debate to Tennessee’s new federal courthouse in Chattanooga. The event comes as federal architecture policy under President Donald Trump’s 2025 executive order is reshaping how major government buildings are being planned.

Why it matters: - The debate over federal architecture is moving from Washington into Tennessee, with a new Chattanooga courthouse set to become a visible test case. - Shubow’s message reflects a broader push to make traditional and classical design the standard for civic buildings again. - The issue carries cultural and political weight because federal buildings shape public space for decades.

What happened: - Justin Shubow spoke to a sold-out crowd at Belmont Mansion in Nashville on Sept. 23. - Meriwether Academy, a Nashville nonprofit, hosted the evening. - Shubow argued that America’s public buildings should return to the classical tradition. - The audience gave the lecture a standing ovation.

The details: - The talk came after the U.S. General Services Administration unveiled the design for a new federal courthouse in Chattanooga in June. - The Chattanooga courthouse is the first major design announced by the agency since President Donald Trump’s August 2025 executive order, “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again.” - Shubow helped draft that executive order. - HOK designed the courthouse in what supporters call a “Greco-Deco” style. - The courthouse is scheduled to open in 2030. - A 2020 Harris Poll commissioned by the National Civic Art Society found that 72% of Americans prefer traditional designs for federal buildings. - Warren Steury, president of Meriwether Academy, said architecture is “the fruit of culture and civilization” and urged people to think about how they will be judged 500 years from now. - The evening included a reception, a lecture, and a question-and-answer session. - Earlier that day, Shubow joined about a dozen guests for a VIP luncheon discussion of Nashville development, computer-aided design, and classical education. - Attendees traveled from as far as Atlanta and Cincinnati. - The Pamphleteer served as cornerstone sponsor for the event.

Between the lines: - Shubow framed modern architecture as a professional choice imposed on the public, not a neutral aesthetic trend. - He traced American civic architecture back to the Founders’ use of Greek and Roman models, then argued that postwar modernism displaced a roughly 150-year classical tradition. - He pointed to the 1963 demolition of New York’s Pennsylvania Station as a symbol of civic loss. - His remarks suggest the architecture fight is also about who gets to define public taste: experts, institutions, or voters. - Shubow’s profile in the movement is high. He served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 2018 to 2021, became chairman in 2021, and in January 2026 Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy named him inaugural chairman of the Department of Transportation’s Beautifying Transportation Infrastructure Council. - The New York Times has called Shubow “one of modern architecture’s biggest critics.”

What’s next: - Meriwether Academy’s fall calendar continues with the Nashville Antichrist Lectures, a four-part series by investor Peter Thiel beginning Sept. 28. - The Academy will host technology writer Joe Allen for a dinner lecture, “AI as Antichrist,” on Oct. 6. - The Academy will hold an Anti-Propaganda Workshop with author and private investigator Elijah Buffalino on Oct. 24. - More information on upcoming events is available at Meriwether Academy events. - The organization’s broader mission is to build toward a classical boys’ boarding school in Tennessee.

The bottom line: - Nashville’s sold-out lecture showed that classical architecture is now part of a wider fight over civic identity, federal design and who gets to decide what public beauty looks like.