Best Public Restrooms--TIE
Tucson International Airport
7250 S. Tucson Blvd.Café Magritte
254 E. Congress St. READERS' PICK: Oh you fickle readers, the airport and the café. Patience is a virtue and does not go unrewarded at Tucson International Airport. If you can hold out over the Rio Grande even after your third in-flight cocktail, more-than-adequate facilities await you. Indeed, the airport restrooms are clean and new-feeling--lots of bright tile and a whole lot of white. Done in soft browns, the men's room has a highly functional feel to it. But we prefer the lighting and acoustics in the women's room; it was there we heard a great story of international ilk about a couple whom, having returned from the Soviet Union, drank nothing but vodka with breakfast, much to the consternation of the storyteller. For the traveler wannabe, the restrooms at Tucson's downtown gem, Café Magritte, provide a grand getaway. The room on the left is like a doorway straight into Twin Peaks. Within the smoky purple walls of a blue-lit room, the outside world is lost, replaced by a pleasantly eerie other-dimension in which a hand-painted, Mexican toddler chair has become a toilet paper holder/coffee table (the seat supports a copy of Michael Garland's book, Dinner at Magritte's). Brilliant white light focuses on a high chrome peacock clock over the toilet and a triptych mirror, hanging head-level above the sink, assures that three heads are better than one. A collection of tall, illustrated votive candles and a lava lamp impress as a shrine within a shrine. The room on the right is a little more Art Nouveau--black and gold with big art and gilt frames, and, oddly, a tall black ladder trailing plastic vines.READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: While there's nothing out of the ordinary in the restrooms at the Main Library, the readers must like them for their plain old public accessibility. No golden thrones, hot water or places to change a baby's diaper, but the toilets flush and the water faucets are not too mysterious to operate. There are plenty of paper products, but no odors, no graffiti and no crowds. Functional, in a word: It's the only place for some, if you know what we mean. And every city ought to have a place. Let's hope Tucson never lowers itself to the rung New York City's public libraries are on: restricting use of the public restrooms to proven patrons only, leaving the homeless to go behind the bush in the park.
CAT'S MEOW: Near the University of Arizona Main Gate, on the north side of the mall, one of the Arizona State Museum buildings has some restrooms unchanged from the days when this was the university's main library. On the second floor, where the museum maintains its own library now, the clean white tiles in the restroom speak of sanitary practices of years gone by. The tall windows let in light on old ceramic sinks and wood fixtures that are no longer common in modern facilities. Come sit a spell and contemplate what's been lost when contemporary architecture started designing these places for more efficiency.
