WASHINGTON, D.C.- Today, September 12, the National Building Museum will open Up, Down, Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks, the first major exhibition to explore the architectural and cultural impact of such devices. The exhibition, along with its companion catalogue, will explore how these now ubiquitous technologies have transformed our buildings, our cities, and our lives. Up, Down, Across will be on view through April 18, 2004.
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.
Elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks are the most common forms of transportation in America. Though used by millions of people on a daily basis, they are often taken for granted by their riders. While it is generally recognized that the elevator was one of the major innovations that made the skyscraper — and, by extension, the modern city — possible, the impact of escalators on the design of department stores and subway systems, and of moving sidewalks on the expansion of airports, is less often noted. The exhibition will demonstrate that these devices have had a profound impact on our sense of human mobility and public space.
Up, Down, Across will also reveal how elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks — with their perpetual motion and the constantly changing perspectives they afford users — can give riders an experience similar to watching movies. To replicate this "cinematic-effect," much of the exhibition will be presented using moving imagery, including numerous movie clips demonstrating the popular use of these conveyance devices for cinematographic purposes. Internationally, transportation devices are represented through universal symbols and pictures, and these will also be used to frame the exhibition’s design.
Visitors will be greeted by an oversized elevator with large doors that slide open at the push of a button. Inside, screens will show classic elevator scenes from films, and through a trapdoor in the elevator cab, a screen will show memorable escape scenes. The space will be large enough for people to congregate and will give the feel of an enclosed elevator, complete with background music.
The second gallery becomes a theater with a stepped seating area where visitors can view historic and contemporary film clips related to people-moving systems. Films such as Thomas Edison’s view ascending the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exposition of 1900 provide a historical context to elevators. These movie clips will be projected onto a screen situated on the underside of an enormous “escalator” structure. In the final gallery, a tunnel will evoke an enclosed moving sidewalk. Images of airport walkways and continuous movement will be projected at the back of the tunnel, visually completing the perspective view. As visitors walk through the tunnel, they will feel as though they are actually on a moving walkway.
Recent projects with significant implications for conveyance devices, including Rem Koolhaas’ design for a wheelchair-accessible home in France and the new terminal at Detroit International Airport, will be considered. Along with drawings and elevations, architectural models will present elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks as utilitarian but often extraordinary examples of their medium.
Throughout the exhibition, a timeline will present milestones for each device, as well as an exploration of the conveyance from a broader perspective. Some examples of early timeline entries will include: the first steam-powered elevator installed for public use in America at the E.W. Haughwout Building, New York City (1857); an “inclined elevator” operated as a ride at Coney Island (1895); and a 460-meter-long, two-speed platform system built in Berlin to connect exhibition grounds with a pleasure park (1896). More recent timeline entries will include: installation of exterior escalators at the Pompidou Center in Paris, France (1977); passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act by Congress (1990); and installation of the first curved moving walkway at UnderwaterWorld in San Francisco (1996).
The timeline also will feature images and artifacts that explain the operation of conveyance devices. For example, a scale model of a hydraulic elevator in exacting detail will illustrate what happens mechanically when a passenger summons an elevator. Three-dimensional artifacts, including an early escalator step, hand controls used by elevator operators, and a modern sample of tread used on moving sidewalks, will immerse the visitor in the technology of conveyance.
Viewed in their historic contexts — as mechanical systems, through comparisons of design and diverse uses, as the inspiration for new architectural forms, and 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, Up, Down, Across brings to light the enormous impact they have had on architecture and movement throughout the world.
A 224-page illustrated catalogue — Up, Down, Across: Elevators, Escalators, and Moving Sidewalks — accompanies the exhibition. Co-published with Merrell Publishers in London (2003) and designed by Abbott Miller of Pentagram Design, Inc., the book includes essays by Keller Easterling, “Germ: Conveyance Vehicles and the Shape of Global Cities”; Susan Garfinkel, “Elevator Stories: Vertical Imagination and the Spaces of Possibility”; Alisa Goetz, “Turning Point: Conveyance and the Paris Exposition of 1900”; Peter A. Hall, “Designing Non-Space: The Evolution of the Elevator Interior”; John King, “A Matter of Perception: Escalators Moving Sidewalks and the Motion of Society”; Phil Patton, “Hovering Vision”; Julie Wosk, “Perspectives on the Escalator in Photography and Art”; 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.
Up, Down, Across is being curated and designed by Abbott Miller of Pentagram. For the National Building Museum, Miller has designed several exhibitions, including Do It Yourself: Home Improvement in 20th-Century America (on view until August 17, 2003) and On the Job: Design and the American Office. He also has designed projects for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and Harley-Davidson’s Open Road Tour, and is the author of four books. At the National Building Museum, the exhibition and catalogue are being coordinated by Assistant Curator Alisa Goetz. A range of supporting educational programming for adults and youth will complement the exhibition.
The National Building Museum is America’s premier cultural institution dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning. The Museum has become a vital forum for exchanging ideas and information about such topical issues as sustainable and affordable design, suburban growth, preserving landmarks, and revitalizing urban centers. The Museum is located at 401 F Street NW, Washington, D.C. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Admission is free.
