NYT Piece Uses Elevator To Explain Housing Costs and Other Woes

Stephen Jacob Smith, founder and executive director of the Center for Building in North America, used the elevator to explain why housing costs have skyrocketed, among other woes, in a guest essay for The New York Times (NYT). He begins with a personal story about how he had to climb stairs to reach his third-floor Brooklyn apartment post-pandemic, becoming dizzy and winded because he was ill. “On bad days, I became a prisoner in my own home,” he said. A few months later, Smith visited his mother in Bucharest, where her five-story building was equipped with a small elevator. Elevators, even in mid-rise buildings, are common in Europe, where code is harmonized. In North America, on the other hand, “not only do we have our own elevator code, but individual U.S. jurisdictions modify it further,” he wrote. Add to that the tight market for skilled labor and the strength of the union, and elevators become too cost-prohibitive for many developers. While the elevator helped our country grow into an “economic powerhouse,” with “the elevator-powered Manhattan skyline becoming the command center for the global economy,” today the cost to add an elevator in New York or many other American cities has skyrocketed. “A basic four-stop elevator costs about US$158,000 in NYC, compared with about US$36,000 in Switzerland,” he observed.

Get more of Elevator World. Sign up for our free e-newsletter.

Please enter a valid email address.
Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

CAUTION URGED AFTER FATAL ESCALATOR FALL IN CANADA

Caution Urged After Fatal Escalator Fall in Canada

One of the new elevators; image courtesy of MTA

Modern Elevator Provides Two ADA Units for Brooklyn Station

AZERBAIJANI-CHINESE VT FACTORY TO LAUNCH IN AZERBAIJAN

Azerbaijani-Chinese VT Factory in Azerbaijan

Elevators were installed in wooden shafts using a certified, high-efficiency assembly method; image courtesy of Schindler.

Schindler Provides 32 Elevators for New Berlin Schools

Biodiverse plan for 1 Silk Street; image courtesy of SOM

1980s London Buildings to Make Way for New Tower Plan

image courtesy of KONE

KONE on CDP 2024 Supplier Engagement A List

Godwin

Godwin Joins CEDES as a Key Account Manager

image courtesy of North Carolina Commissioner of Labor Luke Farley

MEGA Bill Passed in North Carolina