Here's an interesting article in the West Linn Tidings regarding the Sustainable Park Restroom Concept we showed you previoulsy, Toilet Idea Flush with Natural Charm. Mentioned also on Greenroofs.com, Week In Review.
Working closely as we do, with the City of West Linn, Oregon, my business partner and I offered to do a last minute design study for a local Park Bathroom installation in Midhill Park. The challenge was to develop something innovative, attractive and exciting, yet functionally comparable to the clumsy,standard installations being shoe-horned into regional civic parks with little regard for context and sustainability. In all fairness to these local departments, they are highly constrained by slim budgets, tight schedules, bureaucratic traditions and the bid process. Nevertheless, Ken Worcestor, Director of COWL Parks & Rec graciously indulged the exercise.
As President of the local Robinwood Neighborhood Association, I knew that the surrounding residents of Midhill Park who would be looking down on this facility wanted something more unique than the standard design developed by a regional landscape specialist and reproduced in one form or another at all of our local parks. Similarly, the parents and children who love their park, were more excited by the prospect of something new and innovative that might also serve as an educational tool. As an Architect, I felt that boilerplate design was simply not an adequate reflection of the evolving values and the expectations we come to have of contemporary public facilities. Operating pro-bono, G+B strived for a design that was functionally identical to that being bid by the City, and yet could better address issues of economy, sustainability, energy efficiency, and natural appeal. We did this study at no expense to the city and offered the design to them if preferred. We think the design that we developed was quite successful and although the City was too far along in the bid & contract process to give it adequate consideration for this installation, they were nevertheless impressed with the result.
As you can see from the diagram, two bathrooms were required, both conforming to current ADA accessibility design standards. We unified them into a circular arrangement that would facilitate a flexible site placement. Using simple yet durable construction methods and materials would keep down both construction and maintenance costs, and would facilitate simpler, low-impact construction on more challenging sites. Additionally, the roof is designed to serve as a rainwater catchment to help reduce the building's stormwater footprint. The addition of a vegetated roof system would enhance the building's natural appeal, reduce heat gain and reflected sunlight, while providing a rudimentary filtration medium for rainwater. Excessive rainwater would be filtered again through the use of a simple integrated sand filter on the roof. Rainwater would flow from the filter into a central gutter and to a series of inexpensive 60 gallon plastic storage tanks racked within a inner closet. The stored water would be used to flush the public toilets toilets. A 360 gallon capacity 6-barrel reservoir should provide a sufficient suppy of flush water that could be augmented in heavy use or dryer seasons from a connection to the public water supply system. Small Solar PV Panels hooked into a simple battey backup, would supply sufficient power for internal and external LED lights and natural passive ventilation would maintain healthy airflow within the spaces.
We quickly came realized just how big of an impact even the smallest gesture can make to improving our community and its environment. This tiny building alone, could save betweeon 5,000-10,0000 gallons of treated drinking water per year. It is 1/10th the size of an average home. Imagine similar systems installed on 10% of the homes and buildings in a Community and the savings could be enormous. Currently, Gerber + Boes Collaborative is designing a Net-Zero home in West Linn that includes 20,000 gallons of rainwater storage capacity. That's enough potential capacity to completely offset its municipal water supply. In addition to its full Solar PV generating capacity, the impact of this new home will be nearly non-existent. This is the model of future development. And it begins with one tiny park restroom.
As I said, ultimately this design was not used. The boilerplate bathroom is in place and operational at both Midhill and Robinwood Parks. And while its not a bad design, and residents are quite happy to have a park bathroom facility, many feel that it was another opportunity lost. So rather than see our design concept disappear into a drawer, we thought it might have a life beyond this study and serve as a model for other Communities to show what is possible from even our simplest public installations. The old ways of doing things are no longer sufficient.. Designers and Public officials alike need to step up and introduce better solutions, better models, and more efficient and effective approaches to the challenges that confront us. That's a philosophy I nurtured working for over a decade with ZGF. And its a philosophy that Stephen Gerber and I now bring to every project we do at Gerber + Boes Architectural Collaborative.
As President of the local Robinwood Neighborhood Association, I knew that the surrounding residents of Midhill Park who would be looking down on this facility wanted something more unique than the standard design developed by a regional landscape specialist and reproduced in one form or another at all of our local parks. Similarly, the parents and children who love their park, were more excited by the prospect of something new and innovative that might also serve as an educational tool. As an Architect, I felt that boilerplate design was simply not an adequate reflection of the evolving values and the expectations we come to have of contemporary public facilities. Operating pro-bono, G+B strived for a design that was functionally identical to that being bid by the City, and yet could better address issues of economy, sustainability, energy efficiency, and natural appeal. We did this study at no expense to the city and offered the design to them if preferred. We think the design that we developed was quite successful and although the City was too far along in the bid & contract process to give it adequate consideration for this installation, they were nevertheless impressed with the result.
As you can see from the diagram, two bathrooms were required, both conforming to current ADA accessibility design standards. We unified them into a circular arrangement that would facilitate a flexible site placement. Using simple yet durable construction methods and materials would keep down both construction and maintenance costs, and would facilitate simpler, low-impact construction on more challenging sites. Additionally, the roof is designed to serve as a rainwater catchment to help reduce the building's stormwater footprint. The addition of a vegetated roof system would enhance the building's natural appeal, reduce heat gain and reflected sunlight, while providing a rudimentary filtration medium for rainwater. Excessive rainwater would be filtered again through the use of a simple integrated sand filter on the roof. Rainwater would flow from the filter into a central gutter and to a series of inexpensive 60 gallon plastic storage tanks racked within a inner closet. The stored water would be used to flush the public toilets toilets. A 360 gallon capacity 6-barrel reservoir should provide a sufficient suppy of flush water that could be augmented in heavy use or dryer seasons from a connection to the public water supply system. Small Solar PV Panels hooked into a simple battey backup, would supply sufficient power for internal and external LED lights and natural passive ventilation would maintain healthy airflow within the spaces.
We quickly came realized just how big of an impact even the smallest gesture can make to improving our community and its environment. This tiny building alone, could save betweeon 5,000-10,0000 gallons of treated drinking water per year. It is 1/10th the size of an average home. Imagine similar systems installed on 10% of the homes and buildings in a Community and the savings could be enormous. Currently, Gerber + Boes Collaborative is designing a Net-Zero home in West Linn that includes 20,000 gallons of rainwater storage capacity. That's enough potential capacity to completely offset its municipal water supply. In addition to its full Solar PV generating capacity, the impact of this new home will be nearly non-existent. This is the model of future development. And it begins with one tiny park restroom.
As I said, ultimately this design was not used. The boilerplate bathroom is in place and operational at both Midhill and Robinwood Parks. And while its not a bad design, and residents are quite happy to have a park bathroom facility, many feel that it was another opportunity lost. So rather than see our design concept disappear into a drawer, we thought it might have a life beyond this study and serve as a model for other Communities to show what is possible from even our simplest public installations. The old ways of doing things are no longer sufficient.. Designers and Public officials alike need to step up and introduce better solutions, better models, and more efficient and effective approaches to the challenges that confront us. That's a philosophy I nurtured working for over a decade with ZGF. And its a philosophy that Stephen Gerber and I now bring to every project we do at Gerber + Boes Architectural Collaborative.
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