by Thomas Breen
Bruce Becker received an email at around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday from a staffer in the White House’s personnel office.
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the Commission of Fine Arts is terminated, effective immediately,” that brief email read, as signed by Mary Sprowls. “Thank you for your service.”
Becker is a Westport developer and architect who built the 360 State St. luxury apartments and who brought back to life Long Wharf’s Pirelli Building as the green-ified Hotel Marcel.
For the past year, he’s served as one of seven members of a federal arts commission charged with reviewing and providing non-binding guidance on a host of different projects that affect the built environment of Washington, D.C., from parks to schools to Smithsonian museum renovations.
In 2024, Becker was appointed to a four-year term on the commission by then-President Joe Biden.
After a year’s worth of monthly Zoom meetings where he weighed in on such projects as an addition to the National Air and Space Museum, Becker found out on Tuesday that he had been abruptly removed from his post. So too did all of his fellow volunteer arts commissioners — all as President Donald Trump is working on a number of major capital projects that would have otherwise gone before the commission, such as the demolition of the entire East Wing of the White House.
“We’re apolitical,” Becker said about the arts commission, which dates back to 1910. “We bring our best design insights and experience to the table … We basically act as a design jury,” though their findings are non-binding and strictly advisory.
This commission has worked very hard for more than a century “to make sure the quality of what gets built in Washington, D.C. is of the highest quality and also reflects American values,” Becker continued. “We’re there to make sure that bad architecture isn’t built.”
Becker said it was “not entirely unexpected” to get the email termination notice on Tuesday. “There’s been so much turnover at agencies” under the Trump administration. This administration has been quite willing to make personnel cuts and then not fill positions, he said. “I do worry a little bit that we’ll be let go and there won’t be people to take our place.”
Even though he never got a chance to formally review the project, what does he make of the East Wing demolition?
“It’s obviously tragic that the whole thing was demolished before there was a chance to review the need for that,” Becker said. “It does seem like it was rushed.” While there is a need for more meeting space in the White House, Becker said, he’s not sure if there really needs to be 999 seats “and a gilded ballroom reminiscent of Versailles.” That’s something that the arts commission could have debated.
“I think the way the administration has gone about this is unfortunate, because once you demolish something, a lot is lost.”
Becker said it was one of the greatest privileges of his professional life to serve on this commission and participate in reviews of projects submitted by some of the top architecture and landscape design firms in the country. “I developed a great respect for the existence of the commission and how impactful it can be. … It made me proud to be an American. I just hope we get replaced with folks” of the same stature and expertise.
Becker added that, notwithstanding Tuesday’s termination email, he may still technically be on the commission. The president has the power to appoint arts commissioners, he said. The president doesn’t necessarily have the power to terminate them. He also said that commissioners are supposed to serve out the duration of their terms, and then remain on the commission until their successor is appoint.
So, Becker concluded, there’s “some question as to whether I’m officially terminated.”