Skyscraper:
The invention of the elevator was a precondition for the invention of skyscraper since most people would not climb (or could not) more than a few flights of stairs at a time. Elevators in a skyscraper are not simply a necessary tool, such as running water and electricity, but are closely related to the design of the entire structure: a taller building requires more elevators to service the additional floors, but the gaps in the elevators consume floor space. If the core of the service, which contains the elevator shafts, becomes too large, it can reduce the profitability of the building. Therefore, architects must balance the value obtained by adding height with the value lost to the core of the expanding service.
Many tall buildings use elevators in a non-standard configuration to reduce their footprint. Buildings such as the World Trade Center Towers and the John Hancock Center in Chicago use sky lobbies, where express elevators take passengers to the upper floors that serve as the base for local elevators. This allows architects and engineers to place elevator shafts one on top of the other, saving space. However, sky lobbies and express elevators occupy a significant amount of space and increase the amount of time spent going from one floor to another in the tall building.
Other buildings, such as the Petronas Towers, use two-story elevators, which allows more people to fit into a single elevator and reach two floors at each stop. It is possible to use even more than two levels in an elevator, although this has never been done. The main problem with two-story elevators is that they make everyone in the elevator stop when only people on one level have to get off on a certain floor.
Buildings with sky lobbies include the World Trade Center, Petronas Twin Towers and Taipei 101. The sky lobby on the 44th floor of the John Hancock Center also featured the first high-rise indoor pool, which is still the tallest building in the United States of America.
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