Email #87 - Bathrooms Discovered Upstairs

Ever since the beginning of the renovation of Architecture Hall, I had believed, wrongly, that the upshot of the "Bathrooms Disputes" in the design phase had been resolved by moving them from their old placement midway up the Grand Staircases - a stupid place for bathrooms - to the basement of the new renovated building. My misunderstanding was that these new restrooms would be the ONLY ones in the whole building, so those people stationed on the second floor would be walking up-and-down a lot of stairs everyday.

Luckily I have not written about the Architecture Hall bathrooms before (even this might be too much) because I would have been guilty once again of spreading misinformation. But on five different tours of the building, I did tell the visitors - mostly architecture students - that the only bathrooms would be in the basement. This usually generated some heated discussion. Except for the Steam Pipe, it was the only interesting thing about the basement part of the tour. (Note: the basement is more properly known as the "Ground Floor" but it feels more like a basement to me).

So imagine my surprise last March 30 when - while photographing on the 2nd floor - I overheard two construction workers talking shop about the "bathrooms"..... I could not believe my ears!!! What a discovery!!! The two workers thought I was nuts when I excitedly asked them about the bathrooms. They said it wasn't ready yet and I should use the Honey Buckets outside.

So for all of you who came on the building tours between last September and January 2007, there's GOOD NEWS:  On the second floor there will be too very small restrooms adjacent to and south of the new Coffee Shop. Attached is a photo showing their hallway location marked with a big X.

On the right was the last "See Thru Walls" view in the building. The green room in distant right is the SW Quadrant Studios, but this view was covered in drywall today (April 9). The 'door frame' is for a storage closet on the studio side of the wall. The red knob in lower right is the top of the banister of the south Grand Staircase.

One of the vertical HVAC ducts heading to the roof comes directly from a ground level facility for making models with toxic and volatile glues.

But isn't Form Z easier? Less toxic?

John Stamets
April 9, 2007