For nearly two centuries, the White House’s main entrance — framed by a row of graceful Ionic columns — has been a signature image of the seat of American power.

Now the Trump-appointed head of a federal arts commission is proposing to replace them with a more ornate style favored by President Donald Trump. Those more decorative columns, a style known as Corinthian, are considered the most luxurious in classical architecture and appear on buildings such as the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court. They have long been deployed on Trump’s properties, and the president has handpicked them for his planned White House ballroom, too.
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....Many other architects and designers say they’re baffled or even horrified by Cook’s proposal.

“The Corinthian would be inappropriate for the Executive Residence,” said Steven Semes, a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Notre Dame and an expert in classical architecture, warning that it would “harm” the original design of a building long known as the “People’s House.”

He added that the White House’s Ionic columns evoke “the character of dignity, grace and a kind of intimacy or domesticity,” whereas Corinthian columns are “used to express the height of formality and monumentality” for buildings such as the Capitol.

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.....Outside architects took a different view.

“Having buildings with two different classical orders next to each other isn’t that unusual,” said Matthew Bell, a University of Maryland architecture professor, arguing to keep the mansion’s Ionic columns. “Whether they were correct or not, in terms of their usage, that’s what Hoban put on the building.”

Carl Elefante, a past president of the American Institute of Architects and a critic of the ballroom — which he compared to a camel, or “a horse designed by a committee” — said he was troubled to think that it could reshape the White House, too.

“Why are we going to take the abomination of this ungainly design and start to affect the actual White House itself, rather than the other way around?” Elefante said.