A covered bench can be generous without being beautiful.

Usefulness and beauty are separate achievements, and public places tend to be judged on the wrong one. A shelter with a roof and a seat is not much to look at, but it decides whether an older person, a pregnant woman, or somebody in pain can make the trip at all. Generosity in a built thing is measured by who can now be there, not by how it photographs. Plainness is not the same as neglect.

Notice this week which places let you sit and which quietly ask you to keep moving. That tells you a great deal about who a place expects.