[Mr Downtown]

^I think you're conflating two things: outdoor spaces where citizens can petition for redress and indoor spaces that symbolize the majesty and power of government. We don't have protest marches inside capitol rotundas; they're on the steps or adjacent grounds. Same here: picketers march around the Thompson Center's plaza, not its interior atrium.

The concept behind the Thompson Center was to open up government by integrating it with a space clearly welcoming to the public—even if they don't need a license or certificate or have a meeting that day. Thus the airy atrium, the post office and CTA entrance, and the three-level retail center. Alas, in 1980 we hadn't yet learned the lesson about indoor retail just not working in center cities, so the mall never succeeded at bringing people in, and then 9/11 (and a string of suicides) changed the way people were allowed to interact with the building.