Nothing like a polished granite mosaic to make a public washroom special. Not the sort of thing you'd normally associate with a school or a college. However, it's one of the payoffs for the recycling emphasis when Prescott College's Crossroads Center was built.
A friend of the college discovered that the local shop supplying granite counter tops to home builders and remodellers in the Prescott area was tossing units that didn't come up to specs. For instance, a single ding was enough to disqualify a surface. These beautiful pieces of polished stone were landing in the landfill!
So said friend collected the rejects for a year -- and they were used to make mosaic walls in the washrooms at the center. Logically enough, the theme appears to be geological.
The old bottles used in the section below carry their own story -- they were unearthed when ground was broken for the center. Turns out that the old Sacred Heart Hospital, which had occupied the site until it burned down, was razed and used as land fill. The medicine bottles are among the debris the builders found.
Another "cool loo": the bathrooms at the dinosaur museum just outside (Winslow? Holbrook?). They used tiles of picture sandstone, and the end result is breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteI dig anything made with rocks. The old bottles are gems for sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
I cannot beLIEVE this.
ReplyDeleteI've recently been picking up piles of pretty masonry *leftover* from remodeling jobs out here. It grew out of my prediliciton for post-hurricane plant rescues.
And I've been planning, for several months now, to contact some of our many local supply stores, etc. for the same.
Not to mention...incorporating old bottles and other special *found art* into my little masonry projects has been a pet theme for many years now.
Wonderful pix! Thank you!
Wow - well worth the search through your blog for the loos =) These are really pretty. Great that all of the masonry and bottles were kept out of the landfill and used to make such beautiful walls!
ReplyDeleteframe -- isn't that facility a real wonder? I'd love to have all those discards!! In fact, I'd be happy for a counter top even with a ding or two.
ReplyDelete