Mom was right - boys and girls ARE different!



Hoover with a coaster on her head....it was funny at the time

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while but somehow other things kept getting in my way - darn you Tunnel Bob! 

This morning with a cup of coffee on my desk, my husband on location for a shoot and Hoover, my 6-year old Chocolate Lab snoring next to me (wait, didn't she just wake up from sleeping all night?! How do they do it!) I am in a calm place to write about the fun stuff.

The chalkboards in the bathrooms of our facility are cracking me up. What a difference between genders.

All restrooms in the building (save the "Nature Calls" on first and the formal ones in Plenary Hall) have a wall that is just blackboard. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling blackboard. The idea came from a trip to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago about 3 years ago. After a long day of showroom appointments looking at furniture, we (the design team plus me, Robin, Roberto and Angela) had drinks at an uber cool, "we-are-too-old-to-be-here-but-we're-out-of-town-and-will-never-see-these-people-again" bar where we discovered the restroom was planked in chalkboard.

It was spectacular. Visual. Organic. Funny. It was easy to do in our building and we bet the students would love it.

About a month or so after moving into Nancy Nicholas Hall my colleague Bruce Hellmich stopped by and asked what was on the boards of the womens' room. Curious, we each peeked into the others restroom - what a difference.

The women's room chalkboard entries trend towards drawings with lots of color and "TGIF" or encouraging types of material. The men's room is very clearly...shall we say...occupied by boys. Apart from documenting human functions, the chalkboard contributions lean towards cartoons and jokes. "My nose smells" seems to be a favorite.

I can't wait to check again after the students come back this fall.