{"id":5575,"date":"2020-05-26T16:29:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T21:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/?p=5575"},"modified":"2020-05-26T16:29:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T21:29:46","slug":"an-elevator-built-for-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/?p=5575","title":{"rendered":"An Elevator Built for One"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"vijjo8EsSqJgogv-nNkTrA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/BU000809\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'vijjo8EsSqJgogv-nNkTrA',sig:'RYIpU9ZlAmwxE6ZQOrxVCaVcx6dikT-veHswKrE7tsQ=',w:'336px',h:'509px',items:'BU000809',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Could post-pandemic distancing bring back the paternoster? No, I&#8217;m not talking about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/paternoster\">Lord&#8217;s Prayer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One of the (many) daily parts of our lives that may be upended is the elevator because, unless we&#8217;re talking about museum freight elevators &#8211; or the one in the Starrett Lehigh building that allowed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.starrett-lehigh.com\/the-building\/facts-figures\/\">trucks to directly deliver to each floor<\/a> &#8211; it&#8217;s pretty much impossible to maintain social distancing in a typical closet-sized elevator. So, we may have to be riding solo.<\/p>\n<p>The paternoster elevator solves this problem by only being large enough to hold one person. Paternosters are a type of elevator that, unlike the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archdaily.com\/354494\/a-brief-interesting-history-of-the-otis-elevator-company\/\">Otis elevator system<\/a> that we are all familiar with, involves a continuous belt with side-by-side shelf-like platforms running up on one side and down on the adjacent side. Sort of a vertical conveyor belt for people. Passengers step onto a small moving platform going up or down, depending on the side, and then step off again as the platform approaches the desired floor. The really interesting, or scary depending on your point of view, part is that there are no doors, you just step on and off, timing it to the continuous movement of the platform. If you were especially brave \u2013 I say especially because you had to be a bit brave to use them in the first place &#8211; you could ride the platform as it reached the top, ran sideways for a few feet and then started downward.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5579\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/?attachment_id=5579\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5579\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5579\" data-attachment-id=\"5579\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/?attachment_id=5579\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Paternoster_500.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"500,331\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Paternoster_500\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Two pater nosters. Left image: Ludek &#8211; Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=1531590&lt;br \/&gt;\nRight image: Bwag &#8211; Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=84474391&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Paternoster_500-300x199.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Paternoster_500.jpg\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5579\" src=\"http:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Paternoster_500.jpg\" alt=\"Pater noster images\" width=\"500\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Paternoster_500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ecooptimism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Paternoster_500-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-5579\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two paternosters. Left image: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=1531590 Right image: Bwag - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=84474391\">Ludek &#8211; Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Of course, there are some safety issues to be considered. Specifically, the fact that they&#8217;re unsafe. They were fairly common throughout Europe but are now banned. Everywhere, that is, beside Germany where for some reason they are revered. I rode one once and, yeah, they&#8217;re pretty cool. (And I survived.)<\/p>\n<p>Why, you may well ask, is this called a paternoster? The Latin origin means \u201cour father.\u201d One definition of the term, in addition to the Lord\u2019s Prayer, refers to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/dictionary\/english\/paternoster\">a muttered prayer or incantation<\/a>.\u201d One can only assume that riding one requires a crossed-fingers type of tempered fearlessness.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7DzpBS3Ke1Y\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Here&#8217;s a working paternoster in Alvar Aalto&#8217;s National Pensions Building in Finland<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The platforms are just large enough for one or maybe two people: just what we could use for social distancing. Could they be redesigned to be safe from both viruses and gravity? Perhaps, though it\u2019s hard to imagine a redesign that also satisfies ADA requirements and even harder to think of installing one in a litigious society. But tough times demand inventive, maybe even risky, solutions. Just maybe not this one.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20An%20Elevator%20Built%20for%20One&body=https%3A%2F%2Fecooptimism.com%2F%3Fp%3D5575&share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email a link to a friend\" data-email-share-error-title=\"Do you have email set up?\" data-email-share-error-text=\"If you&#039;re having problems sharing via email, you might not have email set up for your browser. 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