On June 7, 2024, the National Civic Art Society, together with The Academy Of Philosophy & Letters, co-sponsored a lecture by C.J. Howard on "The Arrow of Aesthetics: Architecture’s Role in Cultural Formation Through Virtue." The event took place at the University of Maryland, with introductions by Luke Sheahan and NCAS President Justin Shubow.

You can watch the video HERE.

About the speaker: C.J. Howard is principal architect at C.J. Howard Architecture LLC. He is a registered architect who has spent more than two decades practicing in the Washington, D.C. region. He has extensive experience working for firms nationally known for their commitment to, and expertise in, classical and traditional design. Since 2017, Mr. Howard has also served as Assistant Professor at The Catholic University of America where he teaches in the newly launched classical traditional architecture and urbanism track.

Mr. Howard has most recently been a Lead Project Architect for McCrery Architects in Washington, D.C., leading the design and construction of major ecclesiastical projects (both to benefit vibrant and growing Catholic communities on university campuses as well as expanding dioceses). Some of those projects include: a new Thomas Aquinas Chapel and Blessed John Newman Student Center at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln), renovated Saint John Paul the Great Chapel at Mundelein University, a New Christ the King Chapel for Franciscan University of Steubenville and a new Sacred Heart Cathedral in Knoxville, TN.

In addition to his ecclesiastical portfolio, Mr. Howard has worked on a variety of residential and civic projects including several urban design projects in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, to propose visionary new projects for our Nation’s Capital. He has also garnered attention for his entries in design competitions including a 2008 winning entry for a Contrabands’ and Freedmen’s Cemetery Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. His winning design, chosen from among several hundred entries submitted from 20 countries, was used as the design framework for the memorial which was completed and dedicated in 2014. 

Mr. Howard received both his Bachelor of Architecture (2000) and Master of Architectural Design and Urbanism (2010) from the University of Notre Dame. In 2010, Mr. Howard received the Ferguson & Shamamian Graduate Prize for excellence in classical/traditional design exhibited in a graduate thesis. In 2019, Mr. Howard won the Leicester B. Holland Prize Competition. He is licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland and is a member of the Institute of Classical Architecture, National Civic Art Society, and National Council of Architecture Registration Boards.

On January 17, 2024, the National Civic Art Society and the Palm Beach Freedom Institute hosted "Can Federal Architecture Be Great Again?: Trump, Biden, and the Politics of Beauty," a talk by NCAS President Justin Shubow.

About the speaker: Justin Shubow is president of the National Civic Art Society, a nonprofit organization that promotes the classical tradition in public art and architecture. He is former Chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency comprising seven presidential appointees who are the aesthetic guardians of Washington, D.C. Shubow has testified in Congress on topics such as the future of the National Mall and the design of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. He is the author of The Gehry Towers over Eisenhower: The National Civic Art Society Report on the Eisenhower Memorial, a critical examination of the memorial’s competition, design, and agency approval.

He has published architectural criticism at Forbes online, First Things, Public Discourse, The Washington Post, and The Weekly Standard. Shubow is a former editor at the Forward newspaper and Commentary magazine, and is a recipient of a Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship. He has delivered talks on architecture and other subjects at the U.S. Department of State, American Enterprise Institute, Baylor University, Colorado College, Hamilton College, and the Universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and others.

Shubow received a B.A. from Columbia University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and completed four years of study in the University of Michigan’s Ph.D. program in philosophy; he has taught philosophy courses as an instructor at the University of Michigan and Yale College. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation and the Board of Academic Advisors of the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization.