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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

World's Coolest Public Urinal

I've borrowed the title of this post from a headline in British Columbia's online newspaper (or e-zine), The Tyee. The headline is from a story describing the public facility pictured here, located downtown at the corner of Pandora and Government Streets. It was designed by Vancouver architect Matthew Soules and has won a prestigious international design award. You can read what The Tyee has to say about this pissoir by clicking HERE. I am sure there are all sorts of sarcastic and provocative remarks I could make here but I will leave that for my regular commenters, who are generally wittier and better informed than I am. All I will say is that I like this design for what I consider to be a necessary public facility.

10 comments:

Margaret said...

Is there also a "ladies" version?

Mike Laplante said...

C'mon, admit it reminds you of a xylophone and you really just wanna run a stick across it to see how it sounds...

Benjamin Madison said...

Thank you Mike, but no I did not experience a wish to "play" it. But you're right, it does look musical.

Benjamin Madison said...

Hi Margaret - No, there is not a "ladies version" so far. I suspect that is because there are different design requirements and, perhaps more importantly, this item was especially meant to address the problem of public urination by male drunkards. Whatever the reason why there is no ladies version, there should be similar facilities for both genders.

JoJo said...

I am a bit incensed over the male only urinal, when everyone knows that women are the ones who seem to always have to pee. We'll see how long it lasts b/f the hookers start taking their johns in there. They put in state of the art self cleaning bathrooms in downtown SF and had to take them out b/c of the prostitution.

Jack said...

Well, it is in fact kind of appealing in design, though I still prefer desparately looking for a Starbucks or other coffee shop to sneak into . . .

biebkriebels said...

I like the design, it is proper for its purpose and looks fresh coloured. In Amsterdam we have grey steel one's that are called "curls". But only for males.

RedPat said...

You are right - it is really cool. Some males seem to pee all over the place so it is a good idea - a woman will wait for a proper place to go!

Dean Lewis said...

I appreciate the idea of combining attractive, pleasing urban aesthetics with meeting the needs of our most base and disgusting bodily functions.

Andy said...

Only the government would need to hire a architect to build urinal.