The problem with bad design is that there are always excusers who are essentially the enablers in any society to allow that progression to grow. If you can't recognize bad design when it is sitting in front of your face, that is nothing to be ashamed of... it is an all too common affliction. Bad design is borne of a lack of understanding coupled with an innate laziness or lack of inquisitiveness. The Portico for the Edmonton Convention Centre is bad design. It is out of scale with the pedestrian street; it blocks the much more progressive design behind it (cheapening it all the while), it imitates other poorly designed adjacent elements, and -- in its bold effort to be seen -- it destroys the rythm of the street, purportedly Edmonton's main street.