Up, Down, Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks
September 12, 2003 - April 18, 2004
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Elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks are the most common forms of transportation in America. Used by millions of people daily, they are now easily taken for granted by their riders. This was not always the case. Before the invention of a practical safety brake by Elisha Graves Otis, every ride on a passenger elevator was considered a mortal risk. In that era of hand- and steam-powered machines, the fundamentals of elevator operation were inconsistent and often experimental. The public demonstration of the safety brake at the 1853-54 Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York all but guaranteed the future popularity of the elevator, which subsequently helped to shape the skylines of cities around the world.
Less often noted, but similarly profound, has been the impact of escalators on the design of department stores, subway systems, and other public spaces, and of moving sidewalks on sprawling modern buildings such as airports. The earliest escalators were little more than inclined ramps with wooden cleats for steps, but their effect on shopping and transportation was immediate. Two of the earliest installations of escalators, around the turn of the last century, were at Gimbel’s department store in Philadelphia and the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad platform on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. The moving sidewalk made its first significant appearance around the same time. At the Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Paris of 1900, a two-tiered moving sidewalk transported visitors at different speeds around the fair. Though elevators were the earliest devices to enable buildings to grow vertically, escalators have continued that trend, and moving sidewalks have allowed them to grow horizontally.
As these devices have transformed architecture, so have they influenced our perceptions of human mobility and public space. Their continuous motion and the ever-changing perspectives they afford to riders can suggest cinematic experiences. Perhaps that is why the elevator has become a popular setting for intimate encounters, threatening actions, and humorous confrontations in film. Ironically, this medium, which is often preoccupied with the display of heroic rescues and grisly deaths, sometimes relies for dramatic effect on the malfunction of a device that is by far the safest method of transportation.
Viewed in their historical and design contexts — as mechanical systems, through their diverse uses, as the inspiration for new architectural forms, and through their presentation in film — elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks become objects of fascination and vehicles for discovery. Though these devices are mundane by virtue of our familiarity with their daily uses, they have radically transformed our buildings, our cities, and our lives.
Exhibition Catalogue
The companion, 224-page, illustrated catalogue — Up, Down, Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks — is co-published with Merrell Publishers in London (2003) and designed by Abbott Miller and Jeremy Hoffman of Pentagram Design, Inc. The book includes essays by Keller Easterling, Susan Garfinkel, Alisa Goetz, Peter A. Hall, John King, Phil Patton, and Julie Wosk, and a preface by Dr. Henry Petroski, best-selling author and civil engineer. This volume also includes current worldwide statistics about conveyance devices and a glossary of terms. The catalogue can be purchased online at the National Building Museum's Online Shop.
Sponsors
Up, Down, Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks is sponsored by United Technologies Corporation and its subsidiary Otis Elevator Company, which has moved people up, down, and across for 150 years.
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Sponsors & Partners
Credits
Curator: Abbott Miller, Pentagram Design
Assistant Curator: Alisa Goetz
Director of Exhibitions: Catherine Crane Frankel
Exhibition Historian: Dr. Lee E. Gray
Educator: Ayumu Ota
Exhibition Design: Abbott Miller, James Hicks, Jeremy Hoffman, Johnschen Kudos, and Jess Mackta, Pentagram Design, Inc.
Exhibitions Coordinator: Hank Griffith
Exhibitions Preparator: Christopher Maclay
Collections Manager: Dana Twersky
Registrars: Cecelia Gibson, Shelagh Cole
Installation: MaryJane Valade
Volunteers: Richard Evans, Anne Lange
