It's no accident that the wall going up in front of the Nacogdoches County Courthouse hides the courthouse. It should be no surprise, either, since the architect who came up with the design told commissioners more than a year ago that that was exactly what he intended to do.

"I unabashedly was trying to cover up the look of the courthouse," were Malcolm McKinley's exact words, which appeared in a prominently-placed front-page story under the headline "Plaza intended to cover up the look of the courthouse."

And as if that weren't clear enough, here's what else McKinley told commissioners during that April 11, 2005 meeting:

" ... despite the money the county is spending to make improvements, such as a red tile roof, many of the renovations won't be noticeable from outside the courthouse. And 90 percent of those who drive past the courthouse will never see the money spent to renovate inside the building, he said."

And yet now that the wall is almost finished, some people, including county officials, are surprised and dismayed to see that the wall is doing exactly what the architect said it would.

We can understand how members of the general public might have missed out on what the architect's plans for the courthouse entailed, but commissioners have been aware of the plan since the beginning.

That includes Pct. 3 Commissioner Charlie Simmons whose comment Thursday was that "if you're not familiar with it, you don't know it's a courthouse."

Which is true, now, since the large letters that will spell out that it's the Nacogdoches County Courthouse have not yet been attached to the wall, as the architect explained last year.

Although Simmons did "express concern" over the plan in April, and again in July, no action was taken to change it. McKinley was asked to provide some "artistic renditions" so commissioners could "visualize" the wall, which obviously must have addressed their concerns, since the wall is going up originally as planned.

The goal of the renovation wasn't to make the courthouse beautiful, it was to first, make it structurally sound, then to make it more efficient. The plan does that.

We could point out that the courthouse has been the object of scorn and derision for decades, so we're not talking about desecrating an architectural gem.

We're not saying that hiding it behind a wall is a brilliant solution, nor even a good solution. We're saying that it's the solution our county officials signed off on more than a year ago.

If it wasn't the solution the public or the commissioners wanted, they've had plenty of opportunity to speak up, or find another one.