You asked us what the hell it was, but maybe the better question is: what the hell were they thinking? I took a stroll over to the old convention center site yesterday to see the new Art Walk, installed by the DC Arts Commission and hailed by Mayor Anthony Williams as “an example of how art can transform the mundane into an exciting aesthetic experience.” It transforms something alright, but not the parking lot as much as our view on who should be allowed to design public art in this town.

In fact, maybe we should go over a few basic rules:

1. Don’t Make It Look Like A Bus Depot. Unless it’s actually going to be a bus depot. Each of the six pairs of backstops (think your childhood baseball field) share a stretched tarp on top, keeping shade for the benches lining the walk below. The sterile silver poles and white benches, combined with its placement in the center of the parking lot, make it feel like WMATA is going to come barreling down the walkway any second. Apparently this is a real danger, since a row of unsightly — but likely permanent for the duration of the Walk’s existence — orange pylons block the ramped entrance where 8th Street deadends.