Determined to find a better privy design, and a more humane solution of collecting waste, the National Park Service collaborated with ColoradoBuildingWorkshop, the design-build program at CU Denver, to re-design and construct new backcountry privies. The new Longs Peak Toilets explore lightweight prefabricated construction and emerging methods of waste collection to minimize the human footprint in Colorado’s backcountry. The final design solution is a series of prefabricated structural gabion walls. Within the gabions, a series of thin steel plate moment frames triangulate the lateral loads within the structure while stones, collected on-site, are used as ballast. This innovative construction assembly allows for rapid on-site construction (the project was erected in eight days) and an architecture that disappears into the surrounding landscape.
Longs Peak Toilets
Architect: ColoradoBuildingWorkshop
Owner: National Park Service
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Category: Under 5,000 square feet (category three)
Additional Information
Engineer – Structural: Structuralist
