The most visible impacts of Elisha Otis’s invention occur everyday when a person stops onto and off of an elevator. An even more subtle impact is the skyline of New York City or any other major metropolis in the world. The company that Elisha Graves Otis created is still in operation, but under a different name. As presented earlier in the adoption article, the elevator grew with the growth of the skyscraper, but which object allowed for the construction of the other. There is no doubt that the concept of constructing buildings well beyond their means was only perpetuated by the technological developments of steal. Electricity allowed the buildings to be lit safely and to eventually be heated and cooled, but what was the elevator’s role. The elevator allowed the skyscraper to reach new heights. Had the elevator not been utilized, the buildings would only be built as tall as a person can feasibly climb up stairs. At first, the poorest of people lives on the highest of floors due to this discomfort. Later on, the elevator allows the rich and wealthy to elevate them above the muck and dust of the streets below and to visually grasp the landscape that they control. The skyscraper arguably grew with the advancement and procurement of the passenger elevator. In 1889, the Eiffel Tower in France was completed and heralded as the tallest man-made structure in the world. The Eiffel Tower also sported an Otis Elevator to carry passengers to its viewing areas.[1] This structure would not have been accessible has it not been for the elevator. In 1890 right after the invention of the Otis Electric Elevator, the largest building in the world, the World Building, reached 309 feet. By 1930, the Empire State Building’s Otis Elevator allowed the structure to reach over 1,200 feet.[2] Prior to this and the invention of the elevator, structures were limited to six stories; the buildings and their owner’s greed could exceed this mark after the invention and perfection of the elevator. In the article mentioned earlier, the journalist writes four reasons that could be potentially enhanced or changed by the elevator. All four of these aspects are social issues. First, the best hotel rooms are farthest away from the ground floor, but “the comfort of low rooms is but a compromise between high prices, dust and noise, on the one hand, and excessive leg-weariness in stair-climbing.”[3] Second, the rent of office spaces lowers as the building increases. With elevators, almost prophetically, the journalist wrote that rent and accessibility could be the same. Third, the hoisting of goods would be safer and easier. Fourth, within the private residence, walking up stairs “is fatiguing labor — not useful exercise, and especially after a hearty dinner it may be highly injurious.”[4] According to a man of the time, the elevator will change the world. It will democratize the city and make it more comfortable. From this article, it seems unlikely that anyone would not want the utopia-making elevator. Impact on Design and Culture Many historians have stated the elevator’s impact on the architecture of skyscrapers. Most historians agree that the elevator allowed for the construction of the skyscrapers. The elevator also affects the design of the skyscrapers. The design itself sometimes focused around the elevator bays. Another effect of the elevator is on popular culture. Almost everyone is familiar with the genre of music called Muzak, which was popularized by elevators. The elevator gained in popularity affecting urban landscapes and culture. Many historians do no underestimate the importance of the elevator. Rather, they seem to embellish it to its proper importance along with electricity.
