President Trump previously floated the construction of a new triumphal arch to celebrate the country’s semiquincentennial after a meeting with National Civic Art Society president Justin Shubow last year. A conceptual render and 3D-printed model of a grand arch across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, by Harrison Design were rolled out last October.
On January 23, Trump shared a triptych set of triumphal arch renderings on Truth Social. The post didn’t have a caption, so the source of the renderings, and the intent behind them, is unclear. All three proposals proportionally speaking evoke the Arch of Titus, on Rome’s Via Sacra—four engaged, fluted pilasters on each facade framing a single grand arch. The Arch of Titus was built following Rome’s military conquest of Jerusalem.
Two days later, on January 25, Trump posted a longwinded rant about frustrations with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, after a judge said he was skeptical of the East Wing ballroom replacement project. Trump said the structural steel, windows, doors, air conditioning and heating equipment, marble, stone, precast concrete, bulletproof windows and glass, anti-drone roofing, and other materials have already been ordered to build the East Wing ballroom.
The new renderings of triumphal arches are similar in scale and materiality to the proposal by Harrison Design floated last year. Except these latest versions aren’t topped by a gold winged angel and have circular reflecting pools at their base.
Spandrels in each of the newly shared iterations have two bald eagles and wings similar to those from antiquity that represent victory. The wings above the keystone recall reliefs of Greek and Roman goddesses.
One of the proposals is partially gilded in gold leaf, while the others are monochromatic. The words “INDEPENDENCE ARCH” are inscribed on the entablature in the gold leaf iteration. The column capitals would also be gilded in gold. Other gilded ornamentation would be speckled on the facade, not unlike what’s been tacked onto the Oval Office and Cabinet Room.
The other two proposals do not have gold gilding. One of the two more spartan designs has two large sculptures of unnamed figures that measure at least a few stories tall. The third, more sober version has no sculpted figures but maintains many of the same traits as the second version.
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