The Project
The city of Bend required a unique one-of-a-kind public restroom and storage building for a newly designed park with exquisite architecturally designed features. The park had a new high-tech play structure and wanted to provide a large picnic shelter that the restroom building would mimic in style and appearance. Bend wanted this park, with its stamped concrete walkways and surrounding rock walls, to stand out, as it is near Mt. Bachelor, one of the west coast’s premiere ski areas. The restroom building itself needed to please the eye, yet blend with the enormous pines surrounding the park. It needed to be durable, inviting, easy to clean and maintain, with commercial grade appurtenances friendly to users of all ages. They required a facility that is easily winterized and a heat source for the cold winters, which in Bend is at the height of their recreation season.
The Solution
Bend was really inviting Romtec to stretch their design wings and come up with a unique and knock-out restroom design specifically geared to this beautiful park, and Romtec did just that. They designed a building with a unique roof structure, including rough-sawn lumber truss details at both ends, mimicking the unique picnic shelter. The exterior would have a custom red wood stain over cedar siding, with a stone wainscoting harvested from a local Bend quarry, matching the pavilion and surrounding rock walls. The roof was three-tab shingle over an ice-shield barrier, also matching the pavilion. The restroom building was winterized with an insulation package, including the Lexan windows. In-floor heating was chosen to provide heat, giving a long life solution without exposed fixtures. Vandal resistant stainless steel fixtures and energy efficient lighting were provided to help the city handle the volume of traffic expected at the park and public restrooms and make cleaning and maintenance easier. The end result is stunning and has quickly become one of Romtec’s signature buildings, showing what they are capable of providing to all their customers.
