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Elevating Culture

by Sandy Ikeda
Sun, 27 Apr 2008

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Nick Paumgarten has written a fascinating sort of "all you ever wanted to know about elevators" article in the April 21st issue of The New Yorker, "Up and Then Down."

(I don't recall how I came across this piece, so a hat-tip may be necessary later if I do.)

The first part recounts disasters and close calls from elevator lore, such as the time in 1945 when a B-45 crashed into the Empire State Building, sending an elevator car plunging 75 floors — the woman inside survived! Or the more recent ordeal of Nicholas White, who was stuck in one for 41 hours. Plunging elevators, fortunately, are fairly rare. While an average of 26 people die in the U.S. every year in elevator accidents, that number die in cars every five hours. (FYI, there are 58,000 elevators in New York City making 30 million trips daily, and the Otis Elevator Company is the oldest and biggest manufacturer today.)

But what stood out for me was Mr. Paumgarten's observation on the significance of elevators to contemporary society:

Two things make tall buildings possible: the steel frame and the safety elevator. The elevator, underrated and overlooked, is to the city what paper is to reading and gunpowder is to war. Without the elevator, there would be no verticality, no density, and, without these, none of the urban advantages of energy efficiency, economic productivity, and cultural ferment.

Laudate Otisum!

***

Correction: In a recent posting on MoMA's Jean-Nouvel-designed extension, I located the Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue and 32nd Street. It's actually between 33rd and 34th Streets, of course. Shame on me!

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