page_title: Architectural propaganda
section_title: United States (Federal)
hierarchical_section_title: Architectural propaganda / United States (Federal)
caption_attribution_description: English: Digital photograph taken by me, Veedar, of the US Embassy in London, on the 9th April 2006.
context_page_description: Architectural propaganda is the use of architecture, intentionally or unintentionally, to communicate an attitude or idea in a persuasive manner, often for an explicitly propagandistic purpose. The use of architecture for propaganda purposes in order to influence attitudes, opinions, and feelings of the target audience can be found in many cultures across history. Since architecture itself is an expression of culture, the propaganda element of architecture can organically flow from the structure by nature of its being.
  The fact that something may be used for propaganda is not a values statement about the thing itself. It is a simple truism that people are influenced by things around them and therefore, when those things around include architecture, people will be influenced by it as a part of an environment. This inherent quality of architecture then can be used by those with the desire to do so. This use is what transforms the architecture from a simple influence into a piece of propaganda.
context_section_description: The liberal ideas of the United States' Founding Fathers heavily influenced American Federal architecture. The ideas and creations of the Ancient Greeks and Romans held great sway not only in the formation of the United States and her founding documents, but also in the ways American ideals came to be expressed physically when it came to designing the Federal City, Washington, DC. 
  The Embassy of the Hellenic Republic in Washington, DC has hosted lectures on the topic of Greek architectural influence on the Western World and in the United States in particular. Their website says, "Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “design activity and political thought are indivisible.”  He believed that architecture was an important vehicle for expressing political ideals, and he worked to ensure that Washington, as the seat of the American democracy, would become a city of stately and sophisticated buildings based on classical precedents."   It can clearly be seen that while the modern state of Greece did not even exist at the time of the construction of many American government buildings, the Hellenic Republic is still able to derive some propaganda value and great national prestige from the influence of the ancient Greeks upon world history and architecture.
  The style of construction found in the Lincoln Memorial closely parallels the design of a classical Greek temple. It utilizes a colonnade of thirty-six Doric columns surrounding a central interior made up of three chambers. It serves as a memorial for American President Abraham Lincoln and for his service to the United States during the United States' Civil War. The neoclassical design serves to reinforce the validity of the values Americans believed this president embodied at the time of the Memorial's construction. This itself is to some degree a self reinforcement, and thereby propaganda promoting the American values expounded therein.
  The intent to showcase President Lincoln's connection to the founding values of the United States and to the values of the ancients Greeks and Romans is shown in the architecture of the monument itself. It is the implementation and exhibition of these values combined with the text inscribed on the memorial that transforms it from a simple honoring of a man into the honoring of all that he has been perceived to stand for. Even though the memorial is in President Lincoln's honor, it transcends this purpose and becomes a site for connection with American values themselves. The use of ancient Greek architecture allows for the transfer of the collective American values as passed down from the Lincoln, the Founding Fathers, and the ancient Greeks before them. This is consummate propaganda, it takes values, personifies them and holds them up as something to be aspired to, all through the use of architecture.
  An interesting case study into the public diplomacy effects of architecture within a fixed culture and location is provided by the case of the United States embassy in London. “Public buildings project the identity of a country’s peoples, culture and aspirations. American public buildings convey the collective identity of our rich, culturally diverse, and increasingly complex society. An American embassy’s design expresses to the world the ideals of American democracy—the optimism, hope and promise of our time. By communicating the transcendent values that define the United States as a nation, the new Embassy of the United States of America in London has the potential to embody a new age of American openness, transparency, and renewed commitment to international collaboration.  Architecture itself becomes an act of public diplomacy; as the United States Department of State envisions, the design of the new Embassy “far transcends architecture and engineering… it is fully and firmly within the realm of international diplomacy.””  The old US Embassy in Grosvenor Square became the subject of intense dislike by the local inhabitants of London when, following the September 11, 2001 attacks, “the area surrounding the embassy was transformed into a fortress
caption: The current, outgoing US Embassy London exhibits unattractive architectural features.
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