Freestanding public toilet design and location in Boston and Cambridge : a comparative case study

Abstract

This paper explores urban sanitation provision in the United States via a comparative case study of the freestanding public toilets in Boston and Cambridge. The research attempts to capture the influence of municipal institutions and local actors on public toilet design and location, and further attempts to assess to what degree the resulting design and location meet project stakeholders' own communicated priorities as well as anticipated user needs. This is an IRB approved project that engaged stakeholders through interviews and further corroborated online research with toilet block site visits. The study concluded that the Portland Loo design, while it lacked many amenities of the Automatic Public Toilet design, it is a more robust and suitable toilet for a high-demand and high-risk urban environment.