Current day educators and administrators are challenged to provide welcoming, safe, and appropriately designed bathrooms that serve the needs of all students. To meet the needs of their diverse student body and community, this Oakland elementary school began the bathroom modernization project with the goal of “options for all, restrictions for none”. To serve the auditory and visual privacy needs of all students, including their cultural and gender diversity, the team worked with members of the Board of Directors, Head of School, and All Gender Design to create the best solution now and for the years to come.
The current bathrooms exist on the mezzanine level and the 3rd floor. The team explored new bathroom designs for those locations, that varied from:
One room, with private individual stalls and a shared trough sink, to separate boys, girls, and ‘bathroom’, with the intention that the signs would be graphically striking and in keeping with the school colors and graphic sensibility. Moving away entirely from prosaic, gendered bathroom signage, we propose bright, playful, non-binary imagery that evokes the diversity of California wildflowers.
Full height walls and doors, with lights and fans in each stall provides desired privacy and meets current building code requirements. Transom windows above the doors, with minimal translucency provides enough visibility for safety checks.
Discussion amongst the team and with Gender Spectrum, led the project to the final design solution.
Currently in Construction Document Phase.