Necessary Luxury
We’ve certainly come a long way from the lowly necessary. Since the
advent of indoor plumbing, residential bathrooms have morphed from
simple and utilitarian to luxurious and show-stopping. Expensive
materials, state-of-the-art fixtures, and high design furnish bathrooms
in even modest homes. While students entering college probably don’t
expect the same level of comfort, they do want something with a bit of
flair.
Unless, of course, they are coveted athletes. Varsity teams for
Division One, revenue-generating sports expect locker rooms with a“wow
factor,” according to Sherri Hultgren, senior associate, HOK Sport +
Venue + Event. Seeing as the locker rooms present a legitimate
recruiting opportunity, the approach makes sense. And as that luxury
begins to trickle down, along with ease of maintenance, intrinsic
safety, and water conservation, all the students and facilities staff
can now say“wow.”
Play for the Players
Starting at the top, however, revenue-generating athletes are
treated to perks some of us can only dream of. “Each coach has their
own idea of what that ‘wow’ factor is,” Hultgren continued. “But they
all agree on quality, comfort, and ease of use.” For a football team,
ease of use translates into a locker room big enough for a coach to
address 120 players and staff on game day. Technology like wide-screen
televisions and electronic whiteboards remain the standard. Adjacencies
are designed to get a whole team in and out of the locker room
efficiently.
Quality and comfort are expressed through leather seating,
custom carpet, and lockers that remain a far cry from plain metal
boxes. “Comfort ranks higher than efficiency and cost in these spaces,”
said Patti Intieri, AIA, principal, Cambridge Seven Associates. “Locker
rooms like these are more than a place to shower and change.”
But there’s a reason for all of this pampering. “High-end
design goes a long way to building team pride and self esteem,” said
Marty Lee, sales manager, Debourgh. With grueling practice schedules
and full course loads, the locker room becomes a home-away-from-home,
or in many cases, a residence hall room. Graphics packages also prove
to be an important feature. “We display a team’s history, tradition,
successes, and inspirational quotes,” reported Hultgren.
There’s also room for fun. At the University of Washington,
basketball players take part in an unusual ritual: they cut each
other’s hair. To support this activity, Hultgren installed a real
barber’s chair. She also made the sinks more comfortable by raising the
vanities to b-baller height and separated the mirrors with sconces.
Something for the Rest of Us
While collegiate athletic perks remain legendary, some
bathroom pampering has made its way down to the lowly graduate student
and professor. For instance, the new student and faculty apartments at
University of California, San Francisco, designed by Skidmore Owings
& Merrill (SOM), feature bathrooms with an elevated sense of style.
“We wanted to create affordable housing in an expensive market,” said
Michael Duncan, associate partner, SOM. “But we wanted materials that
would look good for a long time.”
To that end, Duncan employed Chinese granite countertops and
laminate cabinets with a faux maple veneer. While jetted spas were not
in the budget, slightly smaller-than-full-size tubs were installed.
Special care was also taken with lighting.
But what about residence-hall bathrooms? Have any efforts been made
to upgrade these typically sparse spaces? “Absolutely,” assured Jon
Domisse, director of marketing and product development, Bradley
Corporation. “When I started in this business ten years ago, lockers
and restrooms were very secondary to the building scheme. Now everyone
from the architect to the owner to the facility manager wants something
special in these spaces.”
Make no mistake; performance still reigns supreme. “People
still want products that act like a Sherman tank,” said Domisse. “But
now they want them to look like a Porsche.”
And they are willing to pay a little extra for them. How else
can you explain full-length, no-peek partitions in bathroom stalls?
“Actually, that’s a privacy issue,” explained Domisse. “With today’s
camera cell phones, building owners and school officials can’t be too
careful about protecting people’s confidentiality.” But that doesn’t
clarify the expanded use of upgraded materials. Facility managers are
specifying stainless steel at a faster rate than good old baked enamel.
The same could be said for lockers. “There will always be a
spot for metal lockers,” continued Domisse, “but metal dings easily and
has to be maintained. Plastic costs more initially but you can kick and
scratch them and they look good for up to 40 years. Plus they never
need a paint job.”
Rising Tide of Conservation
Water conversation remains the biggest buzzword for fixtures like
faucets, showerheads, urinals, and toilets. “The new high-efficiency
products mean that schools can see significant water savings and users
don’t know the difference,” said Rob Zimmerman, senior staff engineer,
water conservation initiate, Kohler. Gone are the days of the 3.5-gal.
flush. Today’s high-efficiency toilets flush with 1.28 gal. or even
less.
Of course if that low-flow flush produces a clog only your savings
go down the drain. “Blockages cost maintenance departments between $50
to $100 apiece,” observed Derek Kilpatrick, North American manager,
Caroma USA, Inc. “Also, if students flush twice to relieve the blockage
it defeats the purpose.”
Luckily, current technology pairs low flow with high efficiency. The
initial cost doesn’t break the bank either. “High-efficiency
showerheads, which lower water flow by 30 percent, cost about the same
as standard heads,” said Zimmerman. “Toilets run about $25 to $50 more
per unit.”
Waterless urinals have also come a long way. Installed in test
schools like Vanderbilt University and The Johns Hopkins University,
facility managers love them for their easy of maintenances and
compelling water savings. “You just wipe them out daily like a sink and
pour a bucket of water in them every two to four weeks to reseal the
trap,” explained Zimmerman.
Whether a sink, urinal, or toilet, some schools are moving to
touchless technology. “People feel that it’s cleaner,” said Domisse.
“So everything from faucets to dryers to soap dispensers is going touch
free.”
No matter what style owners ultimately choose, the fact remains that
bathrooms and locker rooms reflect upon a school and its attitude
towards its students. “We design elegant buildings,” said Duncan, “and
the bathroom is part of that building. It’s part of the infrastructure
and part of the message the campus wants to send.”
So even if they are not saying “wow,” students should at least say “ahh.”