Better looking restrooms

HEADNOTE

Attention to design can improve aesthetics while reducing maintenance costs and making the space more functional

PUBUC AND SEMI-PUBLIC RESTROOMS may be rooms, but often they are anything but restful. Many

feel cold and stark, which may seem synonymous with sanitary and hygienic but are not. Public restrooms do not need to be empty, chilly white rooms with buzzing fluorescent lights and antiseptic aromas to be clean and sanitary. Warm, restful, pleasant or even fun design elements are making their way into today's public restrooms. In other words, companies are finding that there's no reason their company's im.age has to end outside the restroom door.

While the effects may be more easily achieved and accepted in restaurant or retail environ ments, a theme, style or design can easily and affordably be a part of any restroom environment - public, semi-public or executive-private. By utilizing the same or similar materials, colors, patterns, design motifs and artwork in the restroom, designers can integrate a company's style into the restroom decor.

Image, Form and Function

Within the last decade, the public has begun to see and influence the design of public and semi-public restrooms. As the appreciation of attractive and comfortable facilities has grown, the materials and design efforts dedicated to these areas has likewise grown. Manufacturers and designers of restroom amenities are developing and revamping products to meet this demand. These developments include everything from expanding color palettes and optional surface finishes to new ideas in traditional restroom fixtures, furnishings and amenities. Shapes, styles and colors are also more varied and readily available in stock pieces, which allows the creation of a customized restroom atmosphere.

IMAGE ILLUSTRATION 14

Restroom design innovations range from the floor - where large patterned ceramic tiles are gaining popularity - to the ceiling, with layered fighting sources.

For example, one product development firm designs alternatively shaped lavatories, wash basins, commodes and urinals with lids. These modified designs allow designers to fit more useful products into smaller spaces.

Innovations include altering public perceptions regarding traditional or standard water closets (i.e. toilets or commodes). Adaptations of the traditional commode styles include wall-mounted variations and models with "touchless" flush (automatically flushing after use). Following suit are wall-mounted sinks and ceiling-mounted stall partitions as well as faucets and hand dryers with automatic, electronic-eye activators. These reinvented products were successfully integrated into the design of the restrooms for Ferro Corp.'s world headquarters in Cleveland to fulfill both aesthetic and functional requirements.

As color is permitted to play a greater role in public restroom design, the white, 1-inch-by-1 -inch standard tiles are relinquishing space to colored, patterned ceramic tiles ranging in size up to 12-by-12. These variations allow for more creative expressions, look less antiseptic and are more inviting. Larger tiles mean less grout to clean and maintain. Likewise, alternate laminates, marble and solid surfacing materials are becoming more prevalent for use in public restrooms.

Lighting Effects

Selection of lighting materials can have a major impact on restroom aesthetics. Traditionally, restrooms have used rows of fluorescent lighting fixtures parallel to the stalls and mirrors and sinks to create general illumination for the room. While this may be practical from a cost management perspective, it is not the optimum lighting design for a restroom. Harsh lighting can create a cold, unwelcoming environment while being inappropriate for the tasks being performed. it can also highlight dirt in hard-to-clean spaces. Thoughtful selection of fixtures and lamps coupled with careful placement is essential.

Layering lighting sources creates a soft, calming effect that is always appreciated. This may encompass recessed corrected-fluorescent lighting over stall areas, halogen downlighting near sinks and mirrors, and accent lighting via wallmounted sconces to highlight decorative tile or artwork.

Lighting in a restroom, especially in mirrored areas, needs to be comparable to the lighting sources used for major areas of the building and should be appropriately angled to eliminate shadowing. This is particularly important in areas where make up application and grooming will occur.

More Than Meets the Eye

Changes and improvements in aesthetic aspects of restroom facilities yield other benefits such as ease of maintenance and cleanability, improved safety, separating traffic flow and increased accessibility for people with disabilities. Whether constructing a new restroom or expanding and renovating an existing facility, attention to all aspects of these design elements, materials, amenities, fixtures and furnishings can reduce maintenance costs and improve cosmetics.

IMAGE TABLE 26IMAGE TABLE 27

Besides lending an opulent feel and transitioning a color or motif from the rest of the facility, colored and patterned tiles or marble provide maintenance benefits. The natural properties of these product surfaces permit quick cleaning and resist fungal or bacterial growth. Colors and patterns help hide stains from dirt, chemicals and cosmetics, which are common problems in any high-traffic area.

The wall-mounted commodes and lavatories provide comparable maintenance benefits. Being raised off the floor makes cleaning easier around and below the fixture. An additional benefit is that many wall-mounted commodes and sinks can be made accessible to people with disabilities by specifying an alternate mounting height, whereas traditional products require different, taller commodes and lavatories to meet ADA guidelines.

Similar in principle to wall-mounted plumbing fixtures, ceiling-mounted partitions make stalls easier to clean, reducing the time spent on maintaining the facilities. These can be more expensive than traditional restroom partitions, but are worth the investment for large corporate or mercantile facilities with high-traffic, high-occupancy restrooms.

For both wall- and ceiling-mounted fixtures, the architect, designer and mechanical or plumbing engineer should work closely with the structural engineer to assure that the wall, ceiling studs and structures can handle the additional weight and strain.

More Than Cleaning

In addition to cleaning, restroom maintenance entails the refilling of supplies such as soap, paper towels and toilet tissue as well as sanitary trash removal. Like furnishings manufacturers, restroom amenity suppliers providing dispensers and receptacles are being more conscious of design aesthetics and are developing new or redesigned products to meet evolving needs.

Streamlined or recessed amenities and receptacles hide paper waste and better blend into the overall design of the area. A new gravity-fed soap dispenser system has a refillable tank discretely located above the towel dispenser with tubular links to each sink. Individual dispensers beside each faucet utilize gravity to draw soap from the main tank.

Vandalism can wreak havoc on a maintenance budget, draining custodial time and usurping funds through premature replacement of products. Here, too, designers can avert disaster through careful product selection. Stainless steel, texture and splatter paint products can protect today's restrooms from vandals, pens, markers and knives. Phenolic products a melamine surface produced with resinimpregnated materials compressed together to form a dense, solid core material that will not separate when exposed to water - can do likewise. These products can prevent or minimize vandalism, or repair or refurbish a vandalized or stained surface. For example, an interior texture paint product was used to cover ceramic tile in the core restrooms at the Diamond Building located in downtown Cleveland to conceal graffiti and add new life to the outdated tile.

Going the Extra Mile

Privacy and discretion are the primary objectives of restroom users and should be a major consideration of restroom providers. Large gaps between stall partitions and door latches that do not operate properly may become maintenance issues. Special attention during the initial design can play a role in preventing these problems and protecting privacy as well. For instance, one new partition product is specially hinged to practically eliminate gaps.

IMAGE TABLE 37

Concurrent with visual privacy is auditory privacy. Attention needs to be paid to sound emanating from and penetrating through restroom walls. It goes without saying that clients, customers and employees do not need or want to hear the plumbing works of the restroom, nor do restroom users want to be heard or overhear activities from adjacent rooms. The answer is proper sound isolation. Possible resolutions to sound-bleed situations include placing plumbing walls against a storage room or other dead space in a building or double-studding and sound insulating walls. In corporate circumstances, these types of amenities are often located near conference rooms or executive suites where soundproofing can be even more crucial.

Grooming stations are a relatively new concept that can improve traffic flow and add something special to a facility. In a traditional restroom facility, the allocation of mirrors is one per sink. This can mean a traffic jam in the restroom when grooming hair and other activities take up valuable space at a sink. Conversely, a guest washing her hands may be taking up a space at the mirror, restricting access for the woman looking to touch-up her lipstick, further adding to restroom overcrowding.

One way to handle this traffic issue is to replace individual mirrors with a solid mirror running the length of the lavatory area. The grooming station takes this concept a step further. This is an area separate from the water closet and sink areas with a mirror and counter space. This does not need to be a large area. The key is that it departs from the lavatory area, improving movement and reducing congestion in restrooms.

Meeting Codes

Whether building a new facility, renovating, altering or adding to an existing building, always check code and ADA requirements. Most code requirements are not retroactive, meaning the government will not require a facility to change fixtures or layout to meet new code requirements as they are made or enacted. However, whenever an existing building is renovated or expanded, changes function, or experiences a significant change in occupancy, code - along with ADA requirements will need to be addressed for all public areas, not only those planned for renovation.

It is important to remember that it is not just new construction, renovation, expansion or alteration projects that must be in full compliance with ADA Standards for Accessible Design. Unlike codes, ADA requires an ongoing effort to remove barriers to accessibility in existing facilities when doing so is readily achievable, regardless of whether the space is modified or not.

SIDEBAR

Reader Feedback

SIDEBAR

Was this article:

Very Helpful - circle 166

Helpful - circle 167

Somewhat Helpful - circle 168

Not Helpful - circle 169

To reply by mail or fax, use the Reader Information Card on page 137.

AUTHOR_AFFILIATION

Teri Ianni Driscoll, director of marketing for Interior Architecture Studio, and William Ragaller, senior interior designer, work with KA Inc. Architecture in Cleveland.

E-mail comments and questions to edward.sullivan@tradepress.com.