Donald Trump wants to rethink Washington Dulles, Eero Saarinen’s Modernist airport

It is the early days of December 2025 when U.S. President Donald Trump declares that he wants to intervene in the situation of Dulles Airport because it “should be excellent, but it isn’t at all.” This is no ordinary airport, but the main hub serving the federal capital, Washington. Intervening at Dulles therefore means acting on a strategic piece of infrastructure, as well as on the symbolic gateway between the White House and the world. As if that were not enough, the airport’s main building is a major landmark of American Modernism, designed by Eero Saarinen and inaugurated in 1962, one year after his death. That same year also saw the completion of one of the most significant works by the American-Finnish master: the TWA (Trans World Airline) terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, which was converted just over ten years ago into a boutique hotel.

However, while the New York terminal—though repurposed and adapted to new needs—has preserved Saarinen’s architectural character over time, we cannot be sure the same will happen at Washington Dulles, which is now preparing for very different scenarios. In response to the White House’s call, some of the most influential names in contemporary architecture have moved quickly, from Zaha Hadid Architects to Adjaye Associates, as well as infrastructure giant Aecom.

The reasons why Saarinen’s “less fortunate” airport should be redesigned were published by the Department of Transportation in an RFI (Request for Information, roughly equivalent to a call for ideas). There was a time when Washington Dulles was renowned for its innovative design, attributed to a master of modern architecture, but today “the airport is now better known for its inefficient system of people movers that deliver passengers as much as a half mile or more away from their gates,” as well as for “jet fuel smell in the concourses, and a paltry number of gates at the main terminal.”

In short, according to the administration, the airport is no longer adequate for the functional demands of an international hub, and before we even realized it, the initiative had already been dubbed “Making Dulles Great Again.” It is not hard to assume that expectations are aligned with the anachronistic executive order signed by Trump in August 2025, which calls for a return to Neoclassicism and pre-20th-century styles in order to make American architecture “beautiful again.” For this very reason, looking at the list of firms that have expressed interest, it is natural to wonder how contemporary architecture might reconcile itself with such expectations.

It would be particularly bizarre if Zaha Hadid Architects’ proposal were an architecture à la Thomas Jefferson. Instead, in partnership with the New York–based firm Bermello Ajamil & Partners, ZHA aims straight at the president’s ego: already in the first project renderings, displayed in large lettering, the sign “Donald J. Trump Terminal” appears on the imposing new building, “The Grand Arch.” Presented in three different versions, the project envisions an expansion that does not imitate Saarinen but reinterprets his structural dynamism through new fluid forms, counterposing the concave roof of the 1960s with a much larger (twice as large?) convex one. This is the focal point of the proposal: the new airport should convey a sense of “quiet authority,” as stated in the project description, which also refers to symmetry and proportion. These are themes closely associated with classicism and particularly dear to the president, who in early 2026 shared on his social media a project for a new Triumph Arch.

Adjaye Associates’ proposal, developed in collaboration with Rcga+Dm, moves instead in a more restrained direction and does without renderings, deemed unnecessary to meaningfully convey the design intent. According to early previews, the concept is based on the gradual implementation of innovation, while preserving the historic terminal as a “civic landmark.” Aecom is also among the contenders, promising a focus on sustainability and infrastructural resilience, as is Grimshaw, which has proposed converting the Saarinen terminal into a “commercial and social destination.” In every case, the central issue remains the relationship with Saarinen’s work: whether to preserve its modernist spirit or openly move beyond it, accepting the risk of a historical rupture. After all, the RFI calls for ideas that are “bold, creative, and uncompromising.”

In December 2025, the Kennedy Center was renamed the Trump–Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. This move is part of a broader campaign to rename Washington DC’s symbolic buildings, which has also involved the U.S. Institute of Peace (now the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace) and the future Washington Commanders stadium. Political backlash was swift, and on January 13 a group of senators led by Bernie Sanders introduced the Serve Act, a bill aimed at blocking the renaming of federal buildings and making the ban retroactive.

If approved, the law would require the removal of Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace, restoring their original names, and this would also apply to Dulles. We still do not know when the project will be realized, nor what will become of Saarinen’s building, which still bears the name of John Foster Dulles—Secretary of State under President Eisenhower in the 1950s—but which may soon become yet another chapter in a strategy that uses public buildings as instruments of power-driven self-celebration.