Date of Submission
Spring 2022
Academic Program
Art History
Project Advisor 1
Olga Touloumi
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Through a cross-disciplinary analysis of New York City's urban, architectural and infrastructural histories, this thesis explores the various sociocultural beliefs, dynamics and tensions that led to the architectural typology of the public bathroom. In turn, the controversies often associated with public bathrooms are contextualized, and the demarcating and influential capabilities of architecture are made apparent. This work spans from the 19th century and into the 2010s, demonstrating how architectural and urban design and planning can contain and uphold determinations made hundreds of years prior.
Open Access Agreement
Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Frieden, Mayim, "The Public Bathroom: Tracing a History of Architectural Symbolism and Social Control" (2022). Senior Projects Spring 2022. 147.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2022/147
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, Architectural History and Criticism Commons, History of Gender Commons, Industrial and Product Design Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Public History Commons, Social History Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, United States History Commons, Urban Studies and Planning Commons