Romtec designs, supplies, and constructs public buildings of all times, including vault restrooms. Our waterless restroom buildings are popular products in remote or isolated locations because they can be operated without water or electricity and require minimal maintenance. This is often the case on coastlines, where installing infrastructure can be difficult and expensive. Coastlines are also difficult locations for buildings because of the constant exposure to salt and moisture. One recent project arrived at a unique solution for providing restrooms at a coastal park. Romtec worked with the building owner, The Wildlands Conservancy, to supply a waterless restroom building that was buried in a hillside on a coastal nature preserve.
Facilities with Minimal Environmental Impact
The Jenner Headlands Preserve is a large area of Californian wilderness with over 14 miles of accessible trails. The land for this preserve was purchased in 2009 after years of securing funding. According to the Wildlands Conservancy website, one major goal of the land acquisition was to restore the coastal prairie and to help the growth of the redwood forests that are recovering from many years of logging. As a part of this goal, the new facilities needed to have a minimal impact on the natural resources of the preserve. These include parking lots, trailheads, camp sites, trails, and the restrooms. To meet these goals, the Conservancy decided on an unorthodox approach.
Using Natural Elements in Design
In order to provide accessible restrooms from its ADA trail, the Conservancy utilized a former quarry in the side of a hill on the coastline and installed a Romtec waterless double restroom in that location. Using that excavation and other projects onsite like trails and bioswales, the project was able to collect a large amount of natural stones from the location. The goal was to use the stones as a natural decorative wall that would cover the façade of the restrooms. Then a living roof would be installed to blend in seamlessly with the hillside. The end result of this concept were ADA vault restrooms that appeared to be nothing more than doors on the side of a hill. This met the goals to have as little impact as possible on the natural resources; it also insured that the vistas and viewpoints around the preserve would never have a restroom building in sight.
The Accessible Final Product
To provide easy accessibility, the restroom was installed just under 500 ft from the parking lot along an ADA trail. This proximity also provides access for maintenance vehicles to upkeep the facility while maintaining a low profile and low environmental impact. In spite of the unique requirements of this project, Romtec worked with our customer to make sure that the final vault restroom package would include all of the required features to make this concept successful. For all our customers, Romtec offers a high degree of expertise and confidence when approaching unique requirements. Even for this “buried” restroom, we always want our clients to have the creativity to dream of their perfect facility.
