The Portland Loo

“In Oregon, the City of Portland is doing its best to serve a toilet-starved public by providing what it calls, The Portland Loo.
And here’s some great news: These sleek-looking, free-standing bathrooms are spreading not only throughout Portlandia, but across the country. Portland officials have been enterprising enough to offer them to other municipal governments, so more of us can have a place to go.”

“From Portland, Oregon, the iconic Portland Loo prevents common restroom problems such as graffiti and other vandalism, prostitution, and drug use through clever design, allowing the restroom to remain open 24 hours a day for its primary purpose.”

04/18/2021

“We could have paid for the Portland Loo in what we’re spending for repairs and maintenance on the existing facility.
Having seen the Portland Loos that are in Nanaimo and in Bastion Square in Victoria and some other locations, had council made the decision five or six years ago to purchase this, we probably could have paid for it just in what we’re spending in repairs and maintenance of the existing facility. But hindsight is 20/20.”
08/29/2019
Published in Campbell River Mirror

“You can see enough to help prevent crime and keep the place clean.
You can see feet and determine if there is more than one person in there for crime prevention reasons. No water source inside, so they can’t bathe in there. The place to clean their hands is outside.”

07/05/2019

Published in Reading Eagle

The others couldn’t ensure the safety we needed.

“One of the key things in regard to downtown washroom facilities that you’re seeing throughout North America is the ability for sight lines, ensuring the safety of the people using the washroom but also ensuring that if people are inside the washroom and are unconscious, people can see into the washroom.”
Published in Campbell River Mirror

“It seems to have got a lot of the design aspects of a great public washroom right. It’s been called the perfect public toilet and the best toilet in Canada and now Smithers, B.C., is getting its very own Portland Loo.”

Published in CBC British Columbia

“They don’t have attendants, but they’re very, very challenging to abuse, so to speak,” Lowe said. “The hand-washing station is on the outside. It has a louvered bottom, so you can see if someone is in distress or if there’s more than one person inside. It allows privacy for the user, but at the same time a little bit of surveillance from the outside.”

Published in The Almanac

This is an authentic urban place and we welcome everybody here — from homeless kids to global leaders…The toilet is really located right in the heart of the square, with traffic coming and going on all sides. So the fact that it’s in such a public space I think is helpful.

“The Portland Loo, a unique, patented outdoor bathroom that inspires such worship in its fanbase you’d think that Steve Jobs himself had designed it. This adoration comes despite the fact that the 24-hour loo was built to be as inhospitable as possible. This toilet does not want to be loved, but in Portland, it is No. 1 (and, presumably, sometimes No. 2 as well).”