Mayor Bloomberg is promoting the use of stairs! A New York Times article on July 18, 2013 said 'a new nonprofit organization, the Center for Active Design, would promote and advise on strategies that encourage daily physical activity and access to healthy food. One such strategy has to do with making the staircase a more prominent part in the design of a new building or retrofitting an old staircase to ensure that it stays open, clean and well lighted.
“We want people to move, we want people to choose this option,” said Joanna Frank, executive director of the new center. “The elevator is there, but it doesn’t have to be the first thing you meet.” '
I'm excited because I long advocated that stairs should not be hidden. we are often told to take the stairs but many buildings don't make this an easy choice. One of the worst I have seen has to be Club Quarters in Devonshire Street, Boston. I stayed there off and on for six months while on a contract assignment and was initially scared to take the stairs down to the lobby for fear there was no re-entry point and I'd find myself trapped in the stairwell. Finally, on a week my husband was with me he held the door open on one floor while I went down an uninviting stairwell to the next floor to see if I could get out without setting off a fire alarm. I could, so we walked down to solve a mystery - why had I NOT been able to find the staircase in the lobby? The answer was simple. The staircase spat us out in a back alley!
“We want people to move, we want people to choose this option,” said Joanna Frank, executive director of the new center. “The elevator is there, but it doesn’t have to be the first thing you meet.” '
I'm excited because I long advocated that stairs should not be hidden. we are often told to take the stairs but many buildings don't make this an easy choice. One of the worst I have seen has to be Club Quarters in Devonshire Street, Boston. I stayed there off and on for six months while on a contract assignment and was initially scared to take the stairs down to the lobby for fear there was no re-entry point and I'd find myself trapped in the stairwell. Finally, on a week my husband was with me he held the door open on one floor while I went down an uninviting stairwell to the next floor to see if I could get out without setting off a fire alarm. I could, so we walked down to solve a mystery - why had I NOT been able to find the staircase in the lobby? The answer was simple. The staircase spat us out in a back alley!
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