Transportation policy is getting an unexpected new focus in Washington: how America’s roads, bridges and transit hubs actually look.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy this week launched a new advisory group called the Beautifying Transportation Infrastructure Council, an effort that could reshape the visual design of U.S. infrastructure in line with President Donald Trump’s architectural preferences.
The council held its first meeting Feb. 2 and quickly signaled that it plans to influence the appearance of highways, bridges, transit centers and airports.
Duffy framed the effort as a return to more ambitious public design. “What happened to our country’s proud tradition of building great, big, beautiful things? It’s time the design for America’s latest infrastructure projects reflects our nation’s strength, pride, and promise,” Duffy said in a DOT news release. “We’re engaging the best and brightest minds in architectural design and engineering to make beautiful structures that move you and bring about a new Golden Age of Transportation.”
The group does not have decision-making or funding authority. Instead, it will advise the U.S. Department of Transportation on policies, design ideas and funding priorities. Even in that advisory role, members outlined two ambitious projects that could steer the look of federally backed transportation work for years to come.
The first is oversight of a national conceptual design competition meant to spark new ideas in transportation design. The second is the development of a design guidebook, tentatively titled “Beauty and Transportation,” that would offer aesthetic recommendations for the design and renovation of federally controlled projects.
On paper, the effort leaves room for a variety of styles. But the council’s founding announcement says its work will “align” with the direction set in Trump’s August 2025 executive order, “Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again.”
That order promotes traditional and classical architecture inspired by ancient Athens and Rome as a preferred model for federal buildings, a preference that is expected to influence the council’s recommendations.
The council is chaired by Justin Shubow, president of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit National Civic Art Society, which advocates for classical architecture and helped draft Trump’s executive order.
In opening remarks, Shubow said the directive called for federal buildings to be “beautiful, uplifting, and admired by the common person.” He added that it shifted architecture away from modernism and toward classical and traditional styles that many people favor. At the same time, he emphasized that the council “should not recommend that any particular style be mandated,” but should make clear that classical and traditional design are legitimate options.
To guide its work, the Transportation Department has drafted five preliminary principles, according to Shubow. Among them is the idea that transportation infrastructure should be designed to “uplift and inspire the human spirit and lend prestige to the nation,” and that projects should foster a sense of place and community pride while building on the past.
The council’s membership includes architects, landscape architects, engineers, construction specialists and state transportation officials.
During the first meeting, members avoided rigid positions on style. Shubow pointed to landmarks such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and Cincinnati’s Union Terminal as examples of memorable civic design. Other members discussed a broader range of ideas, from artistic lighting beneath bridges to planting regionally appropriate wildflowers along highways.
Bryan Jones, mid-Atlantic division president of engineering and construction firm HNTB, pointed to his company’s work on the sweeping, modern Sixth Street Viaduct in Los Angeles as another example of striking infrastructure.
No firm timeline has been set for the design competition or the guidebook. The council plans to hold its next public meeting this summer, with smaller subcommittees meeting privately in the meantime.
The conversation about aesthetics may already be spilling into real projects. Duffy attended the council’s opening session but left early for a White House meeting with Trump to discuss a possible redesign of Dulles International Airport.
It is “a beautiful project that he wants to look at” and potentially “revamp in a great way,” Duffy said, an early sign that the administration’s push to rethink the look of American infrastructure could move quickly from discussion to design.
