Two “Pittsburgh Potties” that were opened Downtown in mid-September have been such a success that the six-month pilot program is likely to lead to a more permanent solution to the restroom crisis.
“This program has further confirmed the need for permanent public restroom facilities in Downtown that are monitored and regularly maintained,” says Richard Hooper, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s vice president of marketing and communications.
“Such facilities are an often-overlooked but essential part of creating a more welcoming environment for the thousands of people who come to our city center every day.”
The two mobile toilet trailers near the Gateway T station and the intersection of Smithfield Street and Strawberry Way have been heavily utilized by visitors, workers and unhoused individuals, Hooper writes in an email response to questions.
Hooper adds that the “initiative is a first step towards implementing more permanent solutions,” which could be inspired by efforts in cities like New York and Denver.
Pittsburgh is no stranger to public restroom experiments.
In 2003, a self-cleaning toilet station opened at the intersection of East Carson and South 18th streets in the South Side. That restroom has since been abandoned.
Less notably, the city of Pittsburgh installed public toilets and drinking fountains around the city in 1915. The amenities did not survive, in part, to restrict intercourse and a person’s ability to sleep in them — two facets of public toilet design that are still widely considered today.
The most recent push was the result of a 2022 Point Park University study.
Last year, Professors Heather Starr Fiedler — who co-authored a similar study on Downtown beautification and cleanliness titled “Taking Out The Trash” — and Dorene Ciletti led graduate students in the creation of “Where Can We Go?” which analyzed public restrooms in other cities and determined the feasibility and potential outcomes of installing them Downtown. Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership was a community partner of the research.
The results and recommendations provide a glimpse of what may be coming to Pittsburgh in the future.
New York City
While New York City made the Point Park study’s list, little was written about its current toilet offerings.
New York City Tourism + Conventions, “the official destination marketing organization” for the city’s five boroughs, notes in its public restroom guide that most are attached to city parks.
While you are out exploring the city, options become more limited. NYC Tourism lists large retailers and transportation hubs — such as Grand Central Terminal and Moynihan Station — as places with public restrooms.
“And, if you ask, you can use the bathrooms at New York City Police Department stations,” the site reads.
In terms of stand-alone toilets, the city has five — all slightly reminiscent of the abandoned toilet in the South Side.
The metallic loos cost 25 cents and run a self-cleaning cycle after every use. (Documentarian John Wilson provides an expert display of how these contraptions operate.)
NYC Tourism says the city purchased 20 of these toilets but has left 15 uninstalled with no indication of how long they’ll be able to hold it.
Denver
Denver’s program also caught the Point Park researchers’ attention. Denver followed a three-tier initiative: first activating existing toilets for public use, then evaluating locations and placing mobile toilets similar to the Pittsburgh Potty, and finally installing permanent public restrooms.
While the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership declined to comment on the cost of the Pittsburgh Potties, the operating and maintaining of the similar Denver trailers cost the city about $34,000 a month, reads Denver’s public restroom pilot report.
The program primarily focused on the two mobile restrooms, but their success drove the city to install a new permanent structure, reports The Denver Gazette.
San Francisco
Denver’s portable potties not only resemble Pittsburgh’s but also those from San Francisco’s Pit Stop Program, which was launched in 2015 and brought portable trailer toilets to locations where permanent toilet fixtures were not available.
The program’s reputation was boosted in 2017 when it was recognized by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Innovation in American Government Awards.
In November 2022, San Francisco partnered with street furniture and transportation advertising company JCDecaux to update old public restroom kiosks.
The kiosks are free to the public, self-cleaning and sculpturesque. They’re not only useful but add visual intrigue to the city, says Bill Katz of kiosk designer SmithGroup in an episode of San Francisco’s Public Works TV.
The marked shift toward transforming a space usually associated with grime and filth is most apparent outside of the U.S.
Tokyo
The Tokyo Toilet project emphasizes form and functionality as designers reform public toilets into artistic pieces. In 2020, a set of Tokyo Toilets surged in notability for their design: clear, colorful walls that become opaque when the doors lock.
On the project’s site, designer Shigeru Ban writes that the feature allows users to see the toilet’s cleanliness, and also lights up parks like lanterns come nightfall.
Other toilet projects have different technologically advanced additions. One spherical, white toilet — reminiscent of an Amazon Echo — in Nanago Dori Park is completely voice-activated, and is meant to reduce contact with unsanitary surfaces, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Nabeshima Shoto Park, a set of five toilet huts with wood-paneled walls create a breezy “public toilet village,” creator Kengo Kuma writes on the project site.
Plunging Pittsburgh
With the Pittsburgh Potty’s pilot program ending in March, the Downtown Partnership is hoping restrooms in garages and Downtown businesses open — or reopen — in the coming months, Hooper says.
The Point Park researchers note that prime candidates for reopening are restrooms at Point State Park and in the Third Avenue and Boulevard of the Allies garages. Previously closed due to vandalism or dated facilities, all could reopen if the funding for renovations and attendants became available.
While glowing lanterns or a breezy wooden village might not be in Market Square’s future, anything ahead of a clog could be a royal flush.