The Best Bathrooms in America

Back in July when I visited the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Wis., I not only went into all the restrooms (including the men's rooms), I took photos. Why?

The Center has six artist-designed restrooms, all done in ceramics. One wasn't on view (I think it was inside the kids' classroom), and one was kind of small and didn't come out too well in my photos. But here are the other four.

First is Matt Nolen's "The Social History of Architecture," just off the main lobby.


This is one wild room!


The sinks were amazing.


As were the other... ahem... fixtures.

Also on the main lobby is Cynthia Consentino's "The Women's Room." Pink is the dominant color, but don't let that fool you.


Referring to paper dolls and dress-up, the bas-relief tiles are incredibly detailed. You could spend at least an hour studying this room.


The figures, of course, are meant to be suggestive of the variety of roles women play in society. The wolf head (left) is an interesting twist on that notion!

The third restroom I saw is called "Emptying and Filling." Created by Merrill Mason, a fiber and mixed media artist, her restroom is very calm and soothing. In some ways, it appears to be just a very nice public restroom in grays and off white, except for the details, such as the toilets (at right above). The wall tiles are embossed with monograms. As the accompanying description says, the room "quietly contemplates the boundaries between public and private through personal objects and procedures that prepare one for public presentation." I guess that's one way to describe what goes on in a public restroom!

The last one was my favorite. Ann Agee's "Sheboygan Men's Room" is a Delft-like marvel, but rather than using the familiar Delft subject matter of windmills, fishing boats and seascapes, Agee pictures scenes from Sheboygan.


Those little vignettes at the top of the wall at left are all specific houses in Sheboygan. And check out the snow flakes in the sinks at right. Above and between the mirrors is a snow plow.


Above the toilets, we have a car going through a car wash and water going over a local dam. The expression of mundanity in this beautiful medium is so funny!


And, last but not least, the Sheboygan water tower and its schematics -- all-important in a Midwestern city!

So, there's one more reason to take a trip to Sheboygan to check out the Kohler Arts Center.