An Architecture Firm Is Raising Money to Build a Gold Prototype for Trump’s Border Wall Around Mar-a-Lago

Chicago's New World Design architecture firm is back with another anti-Trump project.

New World Design' rendering of a border wall prototype, designed based on President Donald Trump's most outlandish statements, outside of Mar-a-Lago. Image courtesy of New World Design.

With the ongoing government shutdown officially the longest in US history, President Donald Trump seems no closer to raising the $5.7 billion he claims he needs to build a border wall. (You know, the one he insisted Mexico would pay for.)

Enter Chicago architecture firm New World Design, which has launched a GoFundMe campaign to build it for him. But there is a twist: They plan to start by building a prototype surrounding the Mar-a-Lago resort and golf club, Trump’s so-called Winter White House in Palm Beach, Florida.

On one side, the “wall” is designed to resemble a traditional white picket fence—albeit 30 feet tall—to reference a time when America was “great.” (It is rendered in Trump’s favorite color: gold.) The design will allow “the bad guys on the other side” to “look through and imagine the riches and moral integrity of being American,” the project website dryly explains.

As you may have already guessed, the firm, which previously attempted to fly four golden, pig-shaped balloons above the Chicago River to obscure the Trump name on the Windy City’s Trump Tower, is hardly a supporter of the president. (The Pink Floyd-inspired Chicago Fiver Folly, titled Flying Pigs on Parade, was ultimately scuttled by Chicago officials.)

New World Design's rendering of a border wall based on President Donald Trump's most outlandish statements, as seen from the US side. Image courtesy of New World Design.

New World Design’s rendering of a border wall based on President Donald Trump’s most outlandish statements, as seen from the US side. Image courtesy of New World Design.

“Early in the presidency, there was a movement in the architecture community to discourage ‘real’ design solutions for the wall. Here we have taken an opposite approach, seeking a design that parallels the thoughtlessness and absurdity of a 2,000-mile-long border wall,” said Erich Stenzel, a principal at New World Design, in a statement. “The resulting design is quite outlandish—and entirely the wrong thing for America!”

In a “design therapy session,” the firm “looked back across the spectrum of Trump’s statements and positions, selected the most irrational among them, then transformed them into architecture,” explained New World Design principle Jeffrey Roberts.

New World Design' rendering of a border wall based on President Donald Trump's most outlandish statements, as seen from the Mexico side, where it is lethally electrified. Image courtesy of New World Projects.

New World Design’ rendering of a border wall based on President Donald Trump’s most outlandish statements, as seen from the Mexico side, where it is lethally electrified. Image courtesy of New World Projects.

The result is bitter satire mixed with a kind of architectural magical realism. On the US side, the wall looks like a gold picket fence. On the Mexico side, it is lethally electrified—”to keep out the droves of bad hombres,” explains the project website—and powered by six new coal power plants, deepening America’s Trump-approved reliance on environmentally harmful fossil fuels. The project press release is titled “US-Mexico Border Wall: A Study in Absurdity.”

The architects were inspired to create their parody campaign, which has a goal of $570 million—the full $5.7 billion would exceed GoFundMe’s campaign goal limits—by the all-too-serious crowdfunding efforts of Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who raised $20 million toward his goal of $1 billion to fund the border wall.

New World Design's rendering of a border wall based on President Donald Trump's most outlandish statements, as seen from the US side, with one of the six new coal plants that will power it. Image courtesy of New World Design.

New World Design’s rendering of a border wall based on President Donald Trump’s most outlandish statements, as seen from the US side, with one of the six new coal plants that will power it. Image courtesy of New World Design.

(Folfage initially promised that “100% of your donations will go to the Trump Wall,” but then pivoted, announcing the money would instead be used to build the wall through a private company, We Build the Wall, Inc. GoFundMe will be refunding donors’ money, unless they opt into this alternate use for the funds, reports CBS.)

For their part, New World Design has pledged to donate all money raised to the International Refugee Assistance Program when they inevitably fail to secure permission to build the Mar-a-Lago prototype.

New World Design's map of the six new coal plants that will power their electrified border wall. Image courtesy of New World Design.

New World Design’s map of the six new coal plants that will power their electrified border wall. Image courtesy of New World Design.

The project, of course, is less about the actual design than it is a call to action. “Our proposals may be tongue-in-cheek,” said Roberts, who personally kicked off the donations with a $500 pledge, “but the goal of conveying a meaningful statement about our government’s current activities is very real.”


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