Creativity flows in proposals for modern public toilet designs
A genteel hearing room at City Hall on Wednesday was the scene of an equally genteel session of potty talk.
Specifically, a proposed redesign of San Francisco’s 25 public toilets and 114 kiosks. The aging mock-Parisian models now on the streets would be replaced next year with silvery reflective updates in a futuristic vein.
The topic brought together the city’s Arts and Historic Preservation commissions for the first time, and all sides agreed the occasion was worthy of the topic.
“These are pieces of street furniture that are very present through the city,” said Jill Manton, special projects manager of the Arts Commission. “We should take care of people’s needs in an elegant, comfortable way.”
Since the mid-1990s, this has been done with forestgreen facilities installed and maintained by JCDecaux. The updates, by contrast, would be tapered like a streamlined abstract vase — what architect Bill Katz of SmithGroupJJR called “a bit of an art piece by itself.”
The design has been refined since early June, when renderings were released of what could have passed for a bulbous shiny spaceship. It’s more streamlined, with less of
the funhouse-mirror aspect.
The changes are for the better, and more changes might come.
Several commissioners balked at how the tapered toilets would be topped by concealed planter boxes. The idea is that silvery orbs could sprout green roofs, even small trees.
“It’s a sculptural solution that merges nature and technology,” argued Katz, whose firm was selected after a small design competition organized by the Department of Public Works after a boxy in-house design by JCDecaux was widely panned. “In many ways, this is what San Francisco is all about.”
Commissioners were not convinced.
“If this is a sculptural element, mixing the two doesn’t work,” said Dorka Keehn of the Arts Commission, questioning the pairing of metal curves and an airborne garden.
Jonathan Pearlman of the Historic Preservation Commission agreed, and added another objection: “I think it would be a maintenance nightmare.”
Put this critic in the naysayers’ camp: Vegetation-topped public toilets is one of those concepts that makes more sense in a competition than real life. The concealed planters also would add about 2 feet to the height of the toilets, which as now designed would be 13 feet tall, 38 inches taller than the current versions.
Another open question involves the materiality of the supposedly reflective shell.
The idea is to have reflective metal components that can be easily assembled — individual pieces replaced should the need arise. But a staff report says the “potential exterior metal surfaces” include not just steel or anodized aluminum, but also fiberglass and glass fiber reinforced concrete.
It’s hard to imagine the latter two having the lightweight look that’s essential to pull off the futuristic design. Better to find a way to make the metalwork work. If ditching the planter boxes and shortening the structure by a foot or so allows for better materials, that’s the way to go.
The final design must return to each commission, and the contract must be approved by the Board of Supervisors. So far, though, the transition from concept to reality is making our potential pissoirs better, not worse.
The fact that they’re less bulbous is a reflection of such practical concerns as making sure that the shells don’t bulge into nearby streets. The 18-inch base of painted concrete is a structural necessity introduced by JCDecaux — and a nice way to anchor what, if done well, will have an almost cloudlike presence.
There’s still plenty to be worked out, such as the general shape of the updated advertising kiosks that come with the toilets. Twenty of the 114 newcomers, by the way, would be “multiservice kiosks” that could hold small vendors or art installations. This would be a nod to the current kiosks, 69 of which originally doubled as newsstands.
That detail itself is a reflection of how the city has changed since the original contract between JCDecaux and the city. The first kiosks appeared in 1996 — two years before Google was founded in Menlo Park.
“We want to be forward-thinking,” said Beth Rubenstein, special projects manager for the Department of Public Works. “We can make amenities, not just in terms of toilets, but in terms of aesthetics and civic design.”
That may be too much to ask. But if the goal is more attractive streets, it never hurts to try.