Happy May Day! I’ll be at Washington High School Park after 6.
These public urinals were built between 1833 to 1848 by Rambuteau, Préfet of Paris, for his anti-miasma “water, air, shade” campaign. Although he is now more famous for his fountains, in Rambuteau’s Paris these urinals were christened with name. A wonderful article [more pictures] from the Philippine Star.
Photos found at Reed College Library in Loyer, F. Paris, Nineteenth Century: Architecture and Urbanism. New York: Abbeville Press, 1988.
Lovely! Even though it would take another decade for sanitarians and urban planners to figure their way out of the miasma theory, they got the esthetics right!
We can turn this on its head. You keep prototyping the waterless urinal and get buy in for the technical design. Then consider the superstructure. Why not go for a Public Art grant through RACC? Start with a temporary “public art installation” based on a DIY urinal with a screen or a bike mounted unit. Then push relentlessly for really artful and cool permanent toilets which double as public art.
Carol-
One of my favorite things about these urinals are that they architecturally blend in with the surroundings. The image of a single concrete stall is right by a church. They matched a urinal to a church!