10 Cool Elevators

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Origin of Cool: Global 

Cast your mind back to the last time you were in an elevator. Pretty unremarkable right? Even elevator music is instantly forgettable! Well Origin of Cool always tips its hat to innovators who take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. These people have created elevators that rock!

1). AquaDom – Berlin, Germany
In the lobby of Berlin’s Radisson Blu Hotel, the AquaDom takes you to the lost city of Atlantis. The 82-foot tall aquarium houses people going between floors and allows them to be inches away from almost a hundred different species of fish.

2). Long Island Business Center – Queens, New York
For fans of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland, the next lift has that ‘through the rabbit hole’ feel.
Behind the doors of the elevator near a small entrance on 31st Street lies a grinning dragon with 3-D beasts bursting from its eye sockets. A fish-eye mirror on the back wall adds to the psychedelic atmosphere.

3). Bailong Elevator – Hunan, China
Bailong Elevator in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is a glass elevator that travels up a 1,070 feet up a sheer cliff face.

4). The Falkirk Wheel – Falkirk, Scotland
I visited this attraction on a typically grim Scottish day about a year ago. This has to be one of the slowest elevators in the world but when you think that you are in a boat being transported up to another level of canal, it’s actually an engineering masterpiece.

5). The Gateway Arch – St.Louis, Missouri
This is America’s tallest monument and is a white pod elevator. It was surely inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Finnish architect Eero Saarinen added glass doors which reveal the mechanics as the lift rises to its 630-foot summit.

6). Sky Tower – Auckland, New Zealand 
Another one I was fortunate enough to visit, this time in 2006. The endearing memory was the elevator and its glass floor. I took a few photos which looked great as the cables and lights blurred as the lift ascended. A few minutes later and at an altitude of 610 feet, the views of Auckland harbor are awesome.

7). Hammetschwand Lift - Lake Lucerne, Switzerland
It looks like a giant firework but the Hammetschwand Lift offers some of the best views of the Alps and Lucerne’s blue waters. The 499-foot ride takes 48-seconds and is the tallest outdoor lift in Europe.

8). Luxor Inclinator – Las Vegas, Nevada
This inclinator transports guests up the side of a hotel at 39-degree angle. Why I hear you ask? Because the hotel is shaped like a pyramid! Only in Vegas!!

9). Louvre Elevator – Paris, France
This playfully designed elevator rises in the middle of a spiral staircase in one of the world’s most famous galleries. Once the lift reaches the top, a slide-out walkway extends to take visitors onto the top floor.

10). Santa Justa Life – Lisbon, Portugal
The Santa Justa Lift ( Elevador de Santa Justa or do Carmo) connects downtown streets with the uphill Carmo Square. It was designed by Raul Mesnier de Ponsardand is 45 meters tall.

Sent in by Karen Henson
via Yahoo
image crredits: Panoramio, Accidental Mommies, Pbase, It Scotland, ivman blog, Novate, Pi Symbol, Oddee, Galen Frysinger

Filed Under: Art & Design

Tags: architecture, China, France, Germany, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, UK, USA