Modular Portland Loo Toilets Are Finally Coming to New York City
Five prefabricated bathrooms will offer relief in one park in each borough — after a painful wait for a company coping with city bureaucracy.
Oregon’s largest city includes a number of Portland Loos to provide free bathroom facilities, both downtown and in parks.
Nearly four years after floating the possibility, the city Department of Parks and Recreation is preparing for a trial run of prefabricated, kiosk-like bathrooms that cost a fraction of the multimillion-dollar price tag for building traditional restrooms.
The five Portland Loo toilets, made by an Oregon-based metal firm, cost roughly $185,000 each, according to a Parks Department spokesperson.
But the overall budget to buy and install five Portland Loos, in one pilot location in each borough, starting as early as summer 2024, could reach as much as $5.3 million.
And strict New York City building code restrictions on prefabricated construction have dragged out getting potties to parks, a Parks spokesperson acknowledged. A sales manager for Portland Loo’s manufacturer, Madden Fabrication, told THE CITY that securing approval in New York was more difficult than in any other location the company has worked in.
“I built 180 of these, from Portland to Alaska to Miami, and I’ve never had this certification problem,” Evan Madden told THE CITY. “New York City has been the most difficult to have a permit approved for.”
A former parks commissioner first proposed the prefab potties in 2019 as a cost-saving measure after THE CITY highlighted the shocking $4.7 million cost of building a single comfort station in The Bronx.
Parks Department spokesperson Meghan Lalor said the budgeted Portland Loo price tag included costs for running new electric and water lines to the units, along with prep work, foundation work and other construction needs.
The modular bathrooms resemble curved newspaper kiosks, with slatted sides that are intended to provide needed privacy, but also enough sightlines to dissuade illicit behavior. They include a baby-changing table and a separate hand-washing station, documents show.
The proposed sites for the trial run are Irving Square Park in Bushwick, Brooklyn; Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem, Manhattan; Hoyt Playground in Astoria, Queens; Father Macris Park in Graniteville, Staten Island; and Joyce Kilmer Park near Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.
Lalor said the agency is still finalizing the site design while getting required approvals from community boards and the Public Design Commission before moving to procure the units.
“We are installing Portland Loos in one park in each borough, in areas specifically chosen because they did not previously have bathrooms,” said Lalor. “This is a pilot to determine the feasibility of using this model in the future as an economical solution to building bathrooms in parks.”
Building Barriers
In East Harlem, Manhattan Community Board 11 wrote a letter supporting Thomas Jefferson Park’s inclusion in the pilot. Even so, a number of its members questioned why the long-underserved neighborhood wasn’t getting a traditionally built comfort station, as the board had requested.
“While Community Board 11 supports this restroom, the implementation of the ‘Portland Loo’ should not serve as a permanent alternative to a full comfort station structure as requested in the CB11 Statement of District Needs,” board chair Xavier Santiago wrote last week in a letter to the Parks Department. “It is important that historically disadvantaged communities like East Harlem receive equitable resources in the implementation of these initiatives such that the quality and quantity of resources provided are commensurate with other Manhattan districts.”
Presenting the project at a recent online CB11 meeting, a Parks project manager and designer, Chad McNeil, informed members that even the prefab units are not as affordable as they might at first appear. “We have funding available — about a million dollars per site — which might be shocking to some, but utility connections are what drive the costs of these,” McNeil said.
CONTINUED:
Modular Portland Loo Toilets Will Be Tried in NYC Parks - THE CITY
Five prefabricated bathrooms will offer relief in one park in each borough — after a painful wait for a company coping with city bureaucracy.
Oregon’s largest city includes a number of Portland Loos to provide free bathroom facilities, both downtown and in parks.
Nearly four years after floating the possibility, the city Department of Parks and Recreation is preparing for a trial run of prefabricated, kiosk-like bathrooms that cost a fraction of the multimillion-dollar price tag for building traditional restrooms.
The five Portland Loo toilets, made by an Oregon-based metal firm, cost roughly $185,000 each, according to a Parks Department spokesperson.
But the overall budget to buy and install five Portland Loos, in one pilot location in each borough, starting as early as summer 2024, could reach as much as $5.3 million.
And strict New York City building code restrictions on prefabricated construction have dragged out getting potties to parks, a Parks spokesperson acknowledged. A sales manager for Portland Loo’s manufacturer, Madden Fabrication, told THE CITY that securing approval in New York was more difficult than in any other location the company has worked in.
“I built 180 of these, from Portland to Alaska to Miami, and I’ve never had this certification problem,” Evan Madden told THE CITY. “New York City has been the most difficult to have a permit approved for.”
A former parks commissioner first proposed the prefab potties in 2019 as a cost-saving measure after THE CITY highlighted the shocking $4.7 million cost of building a single comfort station in The Bronx.
Parks Department spokesperson Meghan Lalor said the budgeted Portland Loo price tag included costs for running new electric and water lines to the units, along with prep work, foundation work and other construction needs.
The modular bathrooms resemble curved newspaper kiosks, with slatted sides that are intended to provide needed privacy, but also enough sightlines to dissuade illicit behavior. They include a baby-changing table and a separate hand-washing station, documents show.
The proposed sites for the trial run are Irving Square Park in Bushwick, Brooklyn; Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem, Manhattan; Hoyt Playground in Astoria, Queens; Father Macris Park in Graniteville, Staten Island; and Joyce Kilmer Park near Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.
Lalor said the agency is still finalizing the site design while getting required approvals from community boards and the Public Design Commission before moving to procure the units.
“We are installing Portland Loos in one park in each borough, in areas specifically chosen because they did not previously have bathrooms,” said Lalor. “This is a pilot to determine the feasibility of using this model in the future as an economical solution to building bathrooms in parks.”
Building Barriers
In East Harlem, Manhattan Community Board 11 wrote a letter supporting Thomas Jefferson Park’s inclusion in the pilot. Even so, a number of its members questioned why the long-underserved neighborhood wasn’t getting a traditionally built comfort station, as the board had requested.
“While Community Board 11 supports this restroom, the implementation of the ‘Portland Loo’ should not serve as a permanent alternative to a full comfort station structure as requested in the CB11 Statement of District Needs,” board chair Xavier Santiago wrote last week in a letter to the Parks Department. “It is important that historically disadvantaged communities like East Harlem receive equitable resources in the implementation of these initiatives such that the quality and quantity of resources provided are commensurate with other Manhattan districts.”
Presenting the project at a recent online CB11 meeting, a Parks project manager and designer, Chad McNeil, informed members that even the prefab units are not as affordable as they might at first appear. “We have funding available — about a million dollars per site — which might be shocking to some, but utility connections are what drive the costs of these,” McNeil said.
CONTINUED:
Modular Portland Loo Toilets Will Be Tried in NYC Parks - THE CITY
