Otis Elevator Company: The Latest Architecture and News

In 1853, at the New York World Expo, a man climbed onto a suspended platform and ordered the rope supporting it to be cut. He dropped a few inches, but the safety system activated, and the platform remained stable, to the delight of the watching crowd. At that moment, perhaps not even Elisha Graves Otis realized how his invention would permanently change the course of architecture.

With the invention of the elevator, the sky became the limit, and buildings of 7 to 10 stories began to appear. Mosette Broderick, Director of Architectural and Urban Studies at New York University, explains that the Equitable Life Assurance Building that opened in 1870 with seven stories inspired both fascination and fear.

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Many technological advancements have changed the way we design in the past 150 years, but perhaps none has had a greater impact than the invention of the passenger elevator. Prior to Elisha Otis’ design for the elevator safety brake in 1853, buildings rarely reached 7 stories. Since then, buildings have only been growing taller and taller. In 2009, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, maxed out at 163 floors (serviced by Otis elevators). Though a century and half separates those milestones, in that time elevator technology has actually changed relatively little - until recently.

What do the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Kremlin, and the Burj Khalifa have in common? 

Elevators from the Otis Elevator Company. The company, which is celebrating its 160th anniversary today, has an interesting history: it was founded in 1853, the year Elisha Otis invented the elevator safety brake. Before Otis' invention, buildings rarely reached seven stories (elevators were considered just too dangerous to implement).

But it was Otis' elevator that would allow for the creation, and proliferation of, the skyscraper - an explosion that would for ever alter the 20th and 21st century skylines. 

Read more about the Otis Elevators influence on skyscraper design (and how Otis performed a death-defying feat to increase the invention's popularity), after the break...