The security consultants—our terrorist age's version of bean counters—have also had their way elsewhere. Planters and sitting walls can't hide the fact that most of the walls along the sidewalk are blank concrete; even the coffee shop, shown here, was deemed a potential target. What a shame, especially in as walkable a city as San Francisco. From a pedestrian's point of view, the experience of the U.S. Federal Building is about as interesting as walking beside a boarded-up store. Our descendants will look back at our fortified "public" buildings and ask, "What on earth were they thinking?"