Readers’ pick: Science and Engineering Hall seventh floor bathroom
When you gotta go, you gotta go.
But finding the best bathroom on the Foggy Bottom Campus when you really gotta take a leak can be a challenge. Luckily, just behind the elevators, the seventh floor women’s bathrooms in the Science and Engineering Hall offer the highest-quality amenities for a pleasant trip to the loo.
Darting to your nearest lavatory or just sticking to the lower floors of SEH may seem more convenient when you need a mid-study bathroom trip. But the solitude of the seventh floor makes it well worth a lengthy elevator ride up for a secluded bathroom break.
Other bathrooms on the Foggy Bottom Campus, especially in older buildings like Gelman Library and Tompkins Hall of Engineering, are notoriously smelly, small and often out of order.
But all of the SEH bathrooms are spacious, with lofty ceilings and full-length mirrors. The sturdy hooks in each of the seven stalls and ample counter space between the six sinks allow you to set your bag aside while doing your business — and the miniature garbage can in each stall is just big enough to rest your phone on.
Not only do the lightbulbs cast a warmer glow than those on other floors, but the out-of-the-way location of the bathroom also means it rarely stinks. It’s usually up to you to decide if you want to make the inaugural stench of the day.
SEH’s broad mirrors also provide a great photo opportunity. My friend and I send each other daily check-ins, snapping a mirror selfie of our outfit of the day and a screenshot of whatever song we are listening to that morning. The warm lighting in the seventh floor bathroom makes it a frequent destination for my morning check-ins.
Like Gelman, SEH boasts a central location on H Street that’s easily accessible when your latte from Peet’s Coffee runs straight through you. But the SEH bathrooms easily beat the library’s loos with the reliable stock of toilet paper and soap, secure stall doors (mind the gap) and fewer chronic odors.
As a nonengineering student, I know few people besides future Nikola Teslas who trek to the upper floors of SEH. But, on my quest to find GW’s premier restroom, I decided to take the journey up. College tour guides always talk about how academic buildings get quieter as one moves up through floors, and it’s true, but the claim has a basis for bathrooms, too.
Without the fear of disruption or out-of-stock paper essentials, you can remain undisturbed while using the toilet, crying about an assignment, touching up your makeup or capturing your next fit check.
