Bathroom Blogfest 2010 #3: Stuck in the doorway?

Thanks to Bathroom Blogfest 2010, I have an opportunity to share a series of photos that Beth took when we visited Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles last year. It took her so many twists and turns to get from the entrance of an upper-floor women’s restroom to the actual stalls that she was inspired (if that is the right word) to document the experience. Apologies for the blurry quality and varying exposure – these were taken quickly, during a break in the concert.

The entrance…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… leads into a sort of foyer, which leads, through a narrow door, into …

 

 

 

 

 

… a dark, narrow hallway, which leads to …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… a 180 degree turn into …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… a mirrored area with a counter, presumably for repairing makeup, checking appearance, etc. If you want an actual toilet, you have to proceed through a narrow passage on the right …

 

 

 

 

… which leads you, finally, as if in an overly long dream, to …

 

 

 

 

 

 

… the actual bathroom stalls. Note that the so-called handicapped stall is located farthest from the hallway.

 

 

 

 

 

There are several striking things about this restroom experience: the narrow doors, the inadequate lighting in some areas, the number of twists and turns — all hell for someone with mobility or balance problems, let alone in a wheelchair or using another assistive device — plus the time and distance from the entrance to the stalls. What’s even more striking is that this building was (famously, by Frank Gehry) designed and built in the first decade of the 21st century. It’s obviously an afterthought, crammed into available non-revenue-generating space. No one was thinking of restrooms as an integral part of the visitor experience at Disney Hall.

Stuck in the 60’s? Not exactly – but for someone using this particular women’s restroom, it would be all to easy to become stuck in a doorway.

 

 

 

More Bathroom Blogfest: clean, simple, 60s

Thanks to the folks at Results Revolution for listing my first Bathroom Blogfest post. They bring up some good points about restrooms as key places where the concept of visitor comfort can be extended or utterly neglected.

Another BB post linked from the same entry is from the Kitchen and Residential Design blog by Paul Anater. He notes that being “stuck in the 60s” (the theme of this year’s BB) isn’t necessarily a bad idea if you’re talking about bathrooms, and provides illustrations of some classic modernist, human-scale bathrooms from the early 60s that look as if they could have been designed today.

In that spirit, here’s a women’s restroom (photos by Beth) from Palazzo Grassi, the just-too-cool museum of minimalist, conceptual, and terminally hip art in Venice, Italy. As I noted in an earlier post, the seating in this museum is lacking, to say the least; but the restooms are clean (literally and design-wise), simple, and classic – completely in keeping with the White Cube look and feel of the museum.

 

 

 

In terms of access for people with mobility problems or in wheelchairs, they are a bit tight, however.

 

Bathroom Blogfest 2010: back to the 60s

Please Be Seated is pleased to join Bathroom Blogfest 2010, a week-long, web-wide series of blog posts devoted to, yes, bathrooms. Here’s a description of the event from the Bathroom Blogfest website:

“… bloggers from around the globe write about the importance of bathrooms in the customer experience. Their posts come from a wide range of perspectives that include sociology, marketing, research, psychology, environmental, customer experience, and user-experience design. The event was initiated in 2006.”

Since restrooms are essential to comfort in most public spaces — indoor ones, anyway — we’re happy to join the discussion.

This year’s theme, inspired by Mad Men, is “Stuck in the Sixties,” the idea being that many public-space bathroom experiences have not been improved in half a century or longer. Not to be contrarian, but here is a 60s style women’s restroom that has been adapted to our own century quite nicely (photo by Beth):

This is on the ground floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in a lobby area that was renovated (I believe) in the 60s. This restroom has the virtues of a 60s modernist space – straightforward access to all stalls as soon as you open the door, sufficient space between the stalls and the sinks, no awkward angles – updated with contemporary 21st century fixtures. The adjacent men’s room has pretty much the same layout. As usual, the Met does things right.

Please visit the entire roster of Bathroom Blogfest blogs:

Blogger	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com
Shannon Bilby	Big Bob’s Outlet	http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/
Shannon Bilby	Carpets N More Blog	http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/
Shannon Bilby	Dolphin Carpet Blog	http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/
Shannon Bilby	From The Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Shannon Bilby	My Big Bob’s Blog	http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk Blog	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net/
Marianna Chapman	Results Revolution	http://www.resultsrevolution.com
Katie Clark	Practial Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
Nora DePalma	American Standard’s Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com/
Nora DePalma	O’Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/
Leigh Durst	LivePath Experience Architect Weblog	http://livepath.blogspot.com/
Valerie Fritz	The AwarepointBlog	http://www.awarepointblog.com/
Iris Garrott	Checking In and Checking Out	http://circulating.wordpress.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com
Renee LeCroy	Your Fifth Wall	http://yourfifthwall.com/
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli’s Blog	http://www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	TILE Magazine Editor Blog	http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
Maria Palma	People 2 People Service	http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
Reshma Bachwani Paritosh	The Qualitative Research Blog	http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
David Polinchock	Polinchock’s Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://trendsblog.co.uk/
David Reich	My 2 Cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Sandy Renshaw	Around Des Moines	http://www.arounddesmoines.com/
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.purplewren.com/
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce Sanders	RIMtailing Blog	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Steve Tokar	Please Be Seated	https://stevetokar.wordpress.com/
Carolyn Townes	Becoming a Woman of Purpose	http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/
Christine & Ted Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	The Carpetology Blog	http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
Linda Wright	LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms	http://lindaloo.com/