Bathrooms at the Madison Public Market

Learning lavatories featuring clean water infrastructure and initiatives

Visitors to the Madison Public Market will have the opportunity to experience bathrooms like no others they’ve been to before.

Through a collaboration between the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, the Madison Public Market Foundation, the City of Madison and Art & Sons, the Madison Public Market bathrooms have been uniquely designed to serve as “Learning Lavatories,” inviting visitors to think differently about water and wastewater. This one-of-a-kind project uses creative design and playful art to highlight the often-hidden systems and processes that protect public health. With over half a million visitors expected at the market each year, the installation is a rare opportunity to reach a large, diverse audience, with half a million chances to spark curiosity, share our mission and promote positive behaviors.

Installation of the educational elements is nearing completion, with final details wrapping up in time for the grand opening of the Madison Public Market in summer 2026!

Unique messaging that makes a splash

The designs for the Learning Lavatories (affectionately called Pee-S-As) reflect the spirit of making the invisible visible. In these unforgettable learning spaces, visitors will discover where water goes after use, how it gets cleaned up and ways to play a part in protecting our shared water resources.

On the first floor, seven gender-neutral restrooms guide visitors through a visual journey of the wastewater treatment process. Colorful pipes and murals across walls and stall doors illustrate how water is cleaned and returned to the environment. The goal is to remind people that water doesn’t just disappear when it goes down the drain.

Upstairs, another seven single-stall restrooms—dubbed the CAN Bathrooms—focus on everyday decisions and their impact on water quality. Messaging is playful, direct and action-oriented: what to flush, what not to and why it matters. The bathrooms on both floors encourage people to see themselves as part of the water story and empower them to take actions that protect and conserve water.

Partnership years in the making

While the Learning Lavatories are new, the connection between the Madison Public Market site and the District goes back over a century.

Beginning in, 1898, when the Public Market at the corner E. Johnson and N. First Street was once home to the city’s first wastewater treatment plant. As the city grew, treatment operations moved to the North Side in 1914 and, by 1930, to the Nine Springs Wastewater Treatment plant in south Madison.

Today, the Market sits next to Pumping Station 1, which helps move wastewater to the Nine Springs facility. Originally called the Main Station, it opened in 1950 and served as the District’s main office for 30 years. This station remains in service, moving 4 million gallons of wastewater per day through central Madison.