A storybook public washroom
Inspiration and Design of Alberta Avenue’s Public Washroom
Alberta Avenue’s permanent public washroom features a storybook-like design with accessibility features. Each side of the building features a different page that represents the diverse culture and community on 118 Avenue. Some accessibility features include barrier-free signage (like braille) and simple doors, so that signage can be easily placed and utilized.
“It's not a sexy piece of architecture in the way that architecture is typically thought of,” says designer Clay Lowe. “But it is a very important amenity.”
Clay Lowe is from Edmonton and has created other artwork throughout the city. He has designed the outside of the Kinistinâw Park public washroom as well. You’ve likely seen the collaborative project on 100st Place, which is titled as: Wall of Encouragement. This work was created by Make Something Edmonton Project (MSE) and Clay Lowe’s studio installed the words: “Take a risk. It’s the most Edmonton thing you can do.”
Lowe measures the outside of the buildings himself and creates to-scale pencil-drawn copies of the designs. On Alberta Avenue, the goal was to reflect the immediate landscape of the area around the bathroom and show healthy activities on the building: “Just kind of reflecting back in some ways, what I see is contemporary experience of life on 118,” says Lowe.
The outside followed an unwritten story showcasing the diversity in the area. “It really is very specifically illustrated, almost like, if you imagine, each side of the building being pages from a […] illustrated children's book.” Lowe explains.
The design embraces “a real, sort of honest and kind of childlike way of representing play,” says Lowe. “Really trying to play with our seasons in a way that isn't just, ‘well, here's snow, and here's rain.’ But like the activities that we might find ourselves: [like] playing hockey in a light snowfall when plants are coming up in the garden.”
The front side of the building features this hockey story. The washroom doors are quiet in comparison to the rest of the building. To help make it unmistakeable, the doors read “Washroom,” as well as signs showing wheelchair access. The bathrooms also feature a sign with scrolling text that reads if it’s available or not. This side of the building also has a window for a bathroom attendant.
The building also features other specific details like the beekeepers at Alberta Avenue Community League. There is a honeycomb pattern shown right below the attendant’s window, and a rose garden placed on the backside of the washroom to represent the immediate landscape and the beekeepers.
The other sides of the building show someone playing with a ball while wearing a prosthetic leg, a child reading a book written in braille, a construction worker heading to work with their coffee, and “the impromptu nighttime basketball game, with the tattooed hands,” says Lowe.
Trying to really bring attention to people’s different abilities, Lowe expresses that the art is in some ways a response to the work that the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts does in the community. “Making sure that they are seen and heard.”
The design is an important aspect of the public washroom, but Clay Lowe believes that what’s most important is providing access to a public washroom for anyone who needs it.
“That's what's ultimately the most important part of this project — it provides space within a public park. And it's added value for families and visitors, but also for people that, frankly, live there,” says Lowe. “They really are, for many people, a first line of access to public health care. And just the dignity of having a place to wash your hands or use the bathroom.”
Immeasurably useful in the Alberta Avenue neighborhood… in many neighborhoods, hopefully to follow. Thank you for the update.