Don’t ridicule this building simply because it is another bland brown block in a neighborhood of glitzy glass and steel skyscrapers. 10 South Canal looks utilitarian because it is. The primary purpose of this building is to house telephone equipment. Computers don’t need windows. They don’t need doors. And they don’t need their building to look pretty. In buildings of this type, ornamentation is a bad thing because it calls unnecessary attention to a piece of vital infrastructure. Moreover, unnecessary doors and windows are nothing more than passages for dust and other contaminants to follow to foul up the works. What you end up with is a building that looks like it was designed by a computer for a computer. And that’s the way they like it.