Only 55 of Manhattan's 629 buildings with 13 or more storeys designated the 13th floor as the 13th floor. It's enough of a superstition to influence how we number floors in buildings, of all things. The first floor is called "1st" because it's the beginning; the 12th floor is called "12th" because it's the last floor above ground level.
The reason for this is simple: if you look up at a building's schematic floor plan, you will usually find that the uppermost floor is numbered 14 or 15 instead. This is because people used to count by ranges of seven (including the first floor), and the thirteenth floor was once considered important enough to list. Now that few people need to know this, the convention has faded away.
In fact, only about 5% of buildings with 13 or more floors use their full height for storage. Most use some of their space for offices, while a third provide luxury rentals with no more than 8 units on each floor. The other 67% are just shells waiting for tenants.
Manhattan alone has over 70,000 square feet of unused office space. That's enough room for 2 large buildings!
And this figure doesn't include any additional floor area that may be available in high-rise condos.
That's amusing, since whether it's labeled "Floor 13" or not, there are still 13 floors. The fact that they are labeled "14" does not affect the fact that they are still on the 13th level of the building. That's precisely what I stated. It is still present. It is still correct.
I guess my point is that language is flexible and can be used to describe things that are actually different, even if they are very similar too. Here, we have a case where something that looks exactly like another thing is being called out as being different. This seems odd to me because they are exactly the same size and shape, but this shows that language can be confusing at times. However, despite all of this, their presence remains the same: one on the 13th floor and the other one on the 14th floor.
The number 13 is considered unlucky in various nations, including the United States, and building owners may occasionally purposely exclude a level numbered 13. This is most common in skyscrapers where the 12th floor is usually service elevators are not available.
It is believed that if an elevator stops on the 13th floor, it will not restart until the 14th floor has been reached again. There are some reports of people who have seen lights or buttons on malfunctioning elevators on the 13th floor, but there have never been any reports of someone actually getting off on that floor.
Some building owners may choose to avoid making floors 13 up because they think this will prevent bad luck. However, there are still many high-rise buildings with 12th floors that are served by small private elevators which only reach as high as 11 stories.
In addition, there are also buildings with 13th floors that are used for storage. These floors are not counted as part of the building's main structure and so would not be able to support anyone's weight.
Finally, there are a few cases of buildings being designed with 13th floors that were intended to be demolished.
When numbering floors, some hotels skip the number 13 and proceed straight to the number 14. This is also true for other towering buildings. It is due to the disease triskaidekaphobia, as well as a general aversion of or superstition about the number 13.
The fear of the number 13 is so strong that even if it were not responsible for the lack of 13th floors, many buildings would still avoid this number because of its negative connotation.
The reason why skyscrapers do not have a 13th floor is simply that no one needed another room until recently. The first skyscraper was built in New York in 1881 and had only 10 floors. The top floor was limited by law to no more than 7 feet above street level - making it the lowest floor possible. As long as there are no problems with fire safety, modern buildings can be as high as they want to be.
But then came the economic crisis of 2008 and the resulting need for cheaper housing. One solution could be the micro-unit, which consists of renting out small rooms in large apartment buildings. These could possibly have only one or two people who would use the room as their living space instead of having their own private bedroom. This new type of accommodation is now popular in Europe but has yet to take off here in the United States.
"It was one of the first things I learned: don't go to 13," he was reported as saying. In reality, according to Otis Elevator, 85 percent of buildings with elevators do not have a labeled 13th level. Of course, not every hotel avoids the 13th floor. The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman for example, has 13 floors.
In fact, only 4 percent of all buildings have a 13th floor in any case. The reason is simple: there are only so many rooms in a building and if you add another floor, you must either cut down on the number of rooms or increase the price of admission. Most hotel owners wouldn't be willing to do that.
The only time this might make sense is if you have a large ballroom on the 12th floor that you need to fill with guests. Then you could offer a free upgrade to everyone who registers online. But even then, most people will still take the elevator rather than search through room numbers until they find the right one.
In conclusion, only four percent of hotels have a 13th floor.
According to an internal record analysis, the Otis Elevator business believes that 85 percent of the buildings with elevators do not have a named 13th level. This means that there are probably more than 100 million unused floors in this country.
The most common use for a 13th floor is as an office space. There are three reasons why this might be the case: first, it provides another layer of privacy for employees; second, it allows for additional storage space; and third, it makes a building appear taller, which may lead to higher rents or other benefits.
In fact, according to some studies, offices on the 13th floor are 10% more expensive than those on lower floors. Perhaps this is why so many large companies have blank walls on their 13th floor.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that some buildings have unmarked "hidden" floors. If a floor is without a door or an exit, then it can be any number from 12 to 15. These floors are usually used for storage or as a place where different services/applications live if they don't fit on the main floor.
Finally, some buildings have floors numbered 16 through 20. They're usually small rooms where security guards or maintenance workers sleep or hang out.
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