The Road to the AT&T Portal.

The author reflects on the role of architecture and design excellence to the society. He believes that architecture is a public endeavor as it involves design professionals, clients, users and the community. He points out that threats to design excellence are dependent on the economics of the construction process, democracy of the building process and indifference. The author concludes that excellence in architecture is in the consolidation of acknowledgement of the needs of the public, climate, site, craftsmanship and present technology conditions.