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.
