American public-space design hides toilets while judging progress by plumbing

Evidence

The distribution of public toilets in America reflects our tendency to deny the existence of urgency even with normal physiological needs. I know of no other place in the world where anyone leaving home or office is put to periodic torture because great pains have been taken to hide the location of rest rooms. Yet Americans are the people who judge the advancement of others by their plumbing. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 360

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Lofland analysis of how public space categorizes and disciplines strangers—restroom concealment is a design decision about whose bodily needs are legitimate in public.
• CANDY: The irony of a nation that judges advancement by plumbing but hides its public toilets is a perfect light conversation fact.