New York’s reputation for architectural excellence is not built on the quality of its public restrooms. Finding one is a struggle in itself: the city has only four per 100,000 people (half the national average, which itself lags far behind other countries’). If you are so lucky as to come across one, the reward is often tainted by peeling paint, shoddy signage, ominously faulty lighting, or, increasingly, a rusted padlock that prevents entry altogether. During the pandemic, the city shuttered 130 such public facilities, tightening an existing crunch.
A public restroom by Gray Organschi Architecture, completed last fall in the Bronx’s newly expanded Starlight Park, is a welcome addition to the city’s embarrassingly limited portfolio. The 1,150-square-foot gray-brick building is perched on a small hill overlooking a gleaming artifical turf field, the two conical points of its zinc-clad roof spread like the wings of a city pigeon preening in the winter sun. Approaching it from a distance across the field, the building does not immediately advertise its purpose—it could easily be transplanted to the Hudson Valley as a quirky home for a young couple relocated from Brooklyn. But two bright yellow doors on the building’s northeast lead to women’s and men’s restrooms, with the other half of the building designated for storage space and an office for park personnel.
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