Design

Museum Monday: Best Museum Bathrooms

We recently celebrated the fact that two airports – Tampa International Airport (TPA) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) have restrooms in the running for this year’s America’s Best Restroom contest.

Restrooms at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) won that contest in 2016.

And over the years, restrooms in gardens, science centers, and museums have ascended to the throne in that contest. For example, the loos at Chicago’s Field Museum won the contest in 2011. And restrooms at many other museums have made the list of finalists over the years.

Perhaps inspired by the annual contest for America’s Best Restroom, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) recently did its own informal poll of favorite restrooms in museums around the country.

Here’s a sampling:

Smith College Museum of Art

Visitors to the Smith College Museum of Art in Northhampton, MA, will find washrooms that are presented as functional art.

This is Ellen Driscoll’s creation, Catching the Drift. (Photographs by Jim Gipe).

And this washroom is the creation of Sandy Skoglund and is titled Liquid Origins, Fluid Dreams.

Mariners’ Museum and Park

Eight restrooms in the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, VA feature an exhibition titled A Head of its Time, all about “the history of going at sea,”

Text panels in the museum’s loo explore topics such as why the facilities – or lack thereof – were called “the head”; the wisdom of keeping tabs on wind direction and how sailors improvised before toilet paper.

Longwood Gardens

The public restrooms at Longwood Gardens, in Kennet Square, PA, won America’s Best Restroom contest in 2014.

The 17 restrooms are part of the largest indoor “Green Wall” in North America and feature domed, naturally lit lavatory cabinets.

Read about other cool museum restrooms here.

Wouldn’t it be great to go somewhere?

On a ‘normal’ Friday, we might be packing up a bag and heading to the airport to fly somewhere.

But these days, we’re following the advice to stay close to home.

Instead, we’re entertaining ourselves by looking through some of the great airline advertising posters in the premium edition of Airline Visual Identity 1945 – 1975 by M.C. Hühne( Callisto Publishers).

We don’t own the book (it retails for $650), but we did get some of the images from the book to share.

Here are few of our favorites:

Delta breaks ground on its new LaGuardia terminal.

Maybe – someday – we’ll love New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Again.

Signs are pointing in the right direction.

On Tuesday Delta Air lines broke ground on its $4 billion, 37-gate facility at LaGuardia – part of the over-all transformation of the airport we’ve been promised.

Delta’s CEO, Ed Bastian, was there, along with New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and a variety of local and regional dignitaries.

“The groundbreaking at Delta’s facilities represents another step forward as we build an entirely new airport at LaGuardia,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Together with our private-sector partners, we are making rapid progress to create the world-class gateway to the Empire State that New Yorkers deserve.”

Delta’s new terminal promises four concourses with 37 flexibly-sized gates to accommodate Delta’s full fleet; a new, larger Delta Sky Club with a Sky Deck; new hold rooms with more seating; 30 percent more concessions space; and “sustainable and scalable technology befitting of an airport of the future.”

“We know the new LaGuardia is one that New Yorkers will be proud to call their hometown airport,” said Delta’s Bastian. “And we are confident that this investment will further cement Delta as the No. 1 airline in New York, with the best customer service and experience on the ground as well as in the air.”

Here are some drawings released by Gov. Cuomo’s office showing what’s in store. Let’s hope the art and greenery makes it to the final cut.

 

 

 

 

Touring Austin – and Austin Bergstrom Int’l Airport

I joined Delta Air Lines for the inaugural of its direct flight between Seattle and Austin and had one day on the ground to explore the city and the airport.

Base camp was the Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin, downtown on Congress Avenue. The hotel is within walking distance of a food cart corner where we fueled up for the day at the silver trailer named My Name is Joe.

The menu includes hearty starts such as Texas Rancher Oats (oatmeal, tomato sauce, poached egg, queso fresco, black beans and avocado) and the proceeds help provide jobs and treatment program funding for service industry workers recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

Next, we set out on a portion of the 10-mile ride and hike trail around Austin’s Lady Bird Lake. Transportation – and excellent guides – provided by Rocket Electrics , which offers both organized and custom tours throughout the city on fun and surprisingly easy-to-ride electric bikes.

Then, it was off to Austin Bergstrom International Airport for a tour.

Upgrades galore are underway at AUS airport, with new shops, restaurants, baggage claim and gate areas under construction.

One work-around airport officials are especially pleased about are the four temporary jet bridges -or “elevated walkways,” as the airport calls them –  that have been set up to keep things moving smoothly at one end of the terminal while a new addition is built. The longest temporary jet bridge is 720 feet and AUS’s Derick Hackett believes it is currently the longest temporary jet bridge in the United States.

Record-setting or not, the bridge is so long that the airport has created a marathon-inspired set of posters to encourage passengers on their journey from one end to the other.

We also stopped by for a tour of the newly-opened Bark and Zoom pet hotel and valet parking center right next to the airport, where dogs and cats can be pampered while their people are away. In addition to the upgraded suites where pups can watch cable TV all day (CNN was playing when we toured, but programming is usually Animal Planet), we got to see the guitar-shaped pool pups gets to play in.

Notice the “No Diving” sign….

LAX unveils made-over Terminal 6

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No, you’re not really on Sunset Boulevard, but the LA icon was the inspiration for the makeover being celebrated this week in Terminal 6 at Los Angeles International Airport.

Part of the long-running LAX modernization program, the project was made possible with a $70.5 million investment from the airport, Westfield and a wide variety of operating partners and unifies three separate buildings built over four decades into a shiny new facility with 21 new retail and dining concepts – including 14 LA brands and 13 airport firsts – laid out in what are described as “interconnected neighborhoods that guide travelers through their journey.”

Restaurants to look for include: Blu20 (L.A. beach-inspired cuisine), earthbar (fresh juices and salads), Habit Burger Grill, The Kitchen, WPizza, The Wine Bar, Osteria by Fabio Vivani (old-world Italian cuisine), Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Point the Way Cafe (craft beers), Wahoo’s Fish Taco and more.

Shoppers will find a chic boutique from M. Fredric, TUMI and MAC Cosmetics shops, a See’s Candies store, a Belkin electronics shop, and plenty of places to pick up travel essentials.

Here’s what the terminal spaces looked like before  – followed by some more images shared by Westfield.

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