Back to the Bronx: Green Restrooms Open at Zoo

There’s another green project at the Bronx Zoo that I neglected to mention in yesterday’s post. Crain’s reports this week that the Zoo has installed New York City’s most expensive bathroom facility at its Bronx River Entrance, calling it “the future of restrooms in the [C]ity.” The project cost $2 million and took eighteen months to complete, opening just a couple of weeks ago on Earth Day. Edelman Sultan Knox Wood, a Lafayette Street-based architecture firm that specializes in green projects, incorporated a variety of environmentally-friendly features into its design. The firm maximized daylight within the restrooms, reduced energy consumption, and incorporated a graywater system which feeds an adjacent graywater garden. The centerpieces of the design are eighteen composting toilets - at $250,000 a pop, Crain’s notes that each is more expensive than “even the trendiest Kohl or American Standard models.” The City’s DEP paid for the toilets while the Wildlife Conservation Society (which manages the Zoo on behalf of the Parks Department) picked up the rest of the tab. According to Crain’s, depending on the success of the composting johns, the City may consider installing them in other facilities as well.

• Bronx Zoo Gets Green Restrooms (Crain's)