Great For Freight

For the first time since I finished college, I live in a building with an elevator. Those college dwellings were ambitious ones indeed. The first was 25 stories, and I was on a floor somewhere in the middle- my memory isn't what it was, but I believe I may have been on the fifteenth floor. Obviously I was high up enough to justify the regular use of that building's elevator. It was kind of neat, although much of the novelty was gone as I found how difficult it often was to use when demand for space exceeded supply. It was quick so long as one could get on though, and as it initially had mirrored walls, I found it a useful last chance to see how I looked before it was too late.

The second building I lived in during college was of basically equivalent size, so the elevator was the de rigueur means for getting up and down. The stairs were unthinkable except in case of fire or getting from the ground floor to the communal floor immediately above. As I think I may have said, this building is a mere three stories, and while I do live on the uppermost floor, the value of the elevator is dubious. It exists probably only because the law demands it. The edifice is probably just enough to trigger regulations that compel such things as an elevator, but the practicality of using it is limited.

There are two conditions under which the elevator is preferable to the stairs. In the first case, I or someone I'm with suffers from some injury which inhibits easy mobility. For example, if I had a broken leg I would tend to use the elevator. I would likewise do so out of solidarity if a companion had a broken leg. In the second case, I would use the elevator if moving something heavy or accompanying someone moving something heavy. We made considerable use of the elevator when moving in, and have had little application for it since. I do use it on laundry day, but seldom apart from that.

The main problem is of expedience. The elevator is not quite as modern and sophisticated as the one which brought me to the top of the Sears Tower (which now goes by another name which I shall never be able to properly internalize), so it moves slowly. It's never actually actively being used in my experience, but if it's not at the floor you are, it just takes forever to bring it to you and then get to the floor you're going to. Since it doesn't possess the charm of the very old one which services the Hotel St. Michael in Prescott, Arizona, it's just not generally worth it. Oh well- the building does have points in its favor besides.