No matter what the theme, though, Area's most salient feature was its radical restroom concept. There was a men's and a women's, as usual, but no one enforced proper attendance. These were the "Bright Lights, Big City" years, but there were other strange things going on in the loos. Eric Goode denies that there was a bar in the bathrooms, but acknowledges that it was a club within a club. "They were the first truly coed bathrooms," he says. "Stephan Lupino set up a studio in there, photographing people with their clothes off. And Chuck Close's big penis image was exhibited there."
Clockwise from left: Keith Haring, contributing to an ˜˜Art'' night; Steven Meisel, left, and Teri Toye; Calvin Klein, left, and Tommy Street.