RDU plans to overhaul these places in Terminal 2 where nearly every passenger goes
More than 15 million travelers will pass through Raleigh-Durham International Airport this year, and chances are most of them will use the restroom before or after their flight.
All that flushing, hand washing and roller-bag pulling can be hard on a bathroom. That’s why, 16 years after the first phase of Terminal 2 opened, the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority plans to redo all the restrooms in the passenger concourses.
The airport calls it a “restroom refresh,” because along with stained floors and dented trash cans the facilities are showing their age in other ways. The wall tiles, floating sinks and other finishes that were au courant in 2008 now look dated, said Jaymes Carter, the airport’s vice president for buildings.
Last week, the Airport Authority approved a contract with EVOKE Studio Architecture of Durham to design the new bathrooms and prepare plans for construction. That work should begin in the fall of 2025 and be done gradually over nearly two years.
“As you can imagine, with bathrooms and restrooms being so important, it’s going to have to be a phased approach,” Carter said.
The $20.2 million project doesn’t include the restrooms in the main ticketing hall. Next year, RDU expects to begin expanding that part of the terminal, to add more ticket counters, baggage carousels and security checkpoints. That will include more restroom capacity.
And over in Terminal 1, RDU plans to add two new restrooms at the south end of the concourse. Five airlines have joined Southwest in Terminal 1 in recent years, and demand for restrooms has increased. That effort hasn’t gotten underway yet.
Durable materials that look like wood
There are 23 men’s, women’s and family restrooms in the concourses at Terminal 2. The renovations won’t change their footprint and general layout or the number of toilets, urinals and sinks.
But they will look and feel very different, Carter said. EVOKE has developed some early sketches and concepts that play off the warm colors of the wood trusses that support the roof.
“They’ve done a really good job of working with the existing feeling of what it’s like to be in the terminal,” Carter said.
David Kushner, who represents Wake County on the Airport Authority, wanted reassurance that the material that looks like wood will hold up to wear and tear.
“Once we do this, it’s going to be 14 or 15 years before we do it again,” Kushner said. “So we want to make sure that we’re picking materials that are at least as durable as what we already have now. Because despite the fact that the current restrooms look dated, they’ve actually held up very well, from a service point of view.”
