Archinect News thinks Donald Trump and Shalom Baranes are a weird pairing

 

Baranes photo credit:  Shalom Baranes Associates Architects

Headline:  Archinect News, 12/6/2025

Nathaniel Bahadursingh reports:

Despite the firm’s experience, its appointment by Trump is unexpected. The firm’s founding principal, Shalom Baranes, identifies as a refugee, according to Christopher Hawthorne's Punch List Architecture Newsletter, who was born in Italy to Jewish parents who fled Libya. Baranes also previously criticized Trump’s policies on immigration, has advocated for the preservation of Brutalism in D.C’s federal buildings, and has donated to several Democratic campaigns.  [emphasis added]

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