Today I went to a jobsite, and on the way there I stopped at a very busy urban rest area of sorts.  I asked an employee at the food court where the restrooms were, and she handed me a token.

When I was working on the Trinity Church undercroft project a few years ago, I was asked to specify token locks for the bathrooms.  The only one I could find at the time was one made by Nik-O-Lok, which is available as a lease.  The church didn’t want to get involved with a lease, so they decided to monitor the restroom comings and goings and deal with the situation if it became a problem.

It’s safe to assume that the urban rest area had problems, because their original mortise locks had been deactivated (latchbolts removed so levers are just being used as push/pulls), separate deadbolts were added (double-cylinder…that’s a no-no), and the Nik-O-Loks were added.  Not to mention that there was a roll-down grille that closed the restroom vestibule at night.

Nik-O-Lok states on their website that their locks are ADA compliant, but I have a feeling that the ones I saw today were manufactured before the handle was redesigned.  I definitely had to grasp it, turn it, and push the door open after inserting my token.  From the inside I had to grasp it, turn it, and hold the latch retracted while I either used the Nik-O-Lok handle as a pull, or used the lever as a pull with my other hand.  The new handle style is reported to be ADA compliant.

While I’m on the subject of restrooms (again), during my site visit the architect pointed out a little “complication”, unrelated to doors but kinda funny…the restrooms in this very fancy, beautiful facility have a stainless steel design element below the ceiling (it looks kind of like a duct to me but I think it has something to do with indirect lighting).  You can see it running down the center of the ceiling in the first photo below.

The stainless steel in this room still had the plastic on it so you can’t get the full effect, but as you can see from the second photo, the stainless is reflective enough even with the plastic in place that you can get a view into the stalls.  I’m glad I’m not the only one who occasionally has a SNAFU to find my way out of!  😉

You need to login or register to bookmark/favorite this content.