innsertnamehere said:
I never liked the European practice of numbering the ground floor as "0". When you count how many floors the building has from the outside, you would say, for example, 10. But the top floor would be the "9th" floor. It doesn't make sense to me. I do like how europeans label parking levels as -1, -2, etc. though. Instead of the American practice of P1, P2, or B1, B2, etc.
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The zero is at least logical and intuitive. 0 is to a ground floor like 0.0 are to referential coordinates. Our current system has three common buttons for the grade level floor: "L", "G", and "1". And then, there's the addition of a star, which is to (somehow) make things clearer? Let's also not forget LL/UL, LG/UG. Ugh, indeed.
 
zang said:
And then, there's the addition of a star, which is to (somehow) make things clearer?
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That star is mandated by various disability acts (such as the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA)) and by building codes.

www.buildings.com

ADA Elevators: What Are the Requirements?

Unless your facility is less than three stories tall, or has fewer than 3,000 square feet per floor, your elevators must conform to the guidelines set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
www.buildings.com www.buildings.com

ADA_Button_350.jpg


Yes, these elevators have to be inspected every so often.
 
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I think this thing needs to get off the ground first before we talk about elevators... /sigh
 
zang said:
The zero is at least logical and intuitive. 0 is to a ground floor like 0.0 are to referential coordinates. Our current system has three common buttons for the grade level floor: "L", "G", and "1". And then, there's the addition of a star, which is to (somehow) make things clearer? Let's also not forget LL/UL, LG/UG. Ugh, indeed.
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I'm not trying to say the North American system is perfect. I prefer the European system in almost every way except for the numbering of the ground floor as 0.

using 0 in measurements is useful, but I feel like floor numbering isn't like a measurement. I think of it as more like a counting of physical objects. If you had 1 banana you wouldn't say you had "0" bananas, as that would suggest you had none. To me a building "has" (for example) 10 floors, and you can go to the first, second, third, etc., of those. Not the 0th.
 
innsertnamehere said:
I'm not trying to say the North American system is perfect. I prefer the European system in almost every way except for the numbering of the ground floor as 0.

using 0 in measurements is useful, but I feel like floor numbering isn't like a measurement. I think of it as more like a counting of physical objects. If you had 1 banana you wouldn't say you had "0" bananas, as that would suggest you had none. To me a building "has" (for example) 10 floors, and you can go to the first, second, third, etc., of those. Not the 0th.
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Interesting. I think of floor numbers as labels. Letters would do as well to let you know when to get off the elevator. I am not attached to any particular labelling system, but it would be nice if everyone agreed on a standard. It just occurred to me that letters are not transferable between nations not sharing the same language. Nor would an ancient Roman feel comfortable dealing with Arabic numerals, should one happen to visit us. I mean a Roman more ancient than myself.
 
zang said:
The zero is at least logical and intuitive. 0 is to a ground floor like 0.0 are to referential coordinates. Our current system has three common buttons for the grade level floor: "L", "G", and "1". And then, there's the addition of a star, which is to (somehow) make things clearer? Let's also not forget LL/UL, LG/UG. Ugh, indeed.
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idk, I find "1" to be the most intuitive for the ground floor.
 
Of course the term "Ground Floor" was used because it was (in UK) the floor level with the ground and often had no 'flooring'. The first 'floor' was the next one up. BUT I am now used to buildings that have NO 1st floor but call it Ground and then start the numbering with 2. I think this is one of those discussions that will never reach a conclusion that is satisfactory to anyone!
 
I have created a thread to discuss floor numbering schemes:

Floor Numbering Schemes

Here is a discussion split from The One (the building) thread. We discuss floor numbering schemes. Read here for a primer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storey Height relative to ground (storeys) European/Australasian convention US/Canadian convention Russian/Soviet convention...
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca

This way, this thread can return to The One and Mizrahi's involvement in it.
 
fanoftoronto said:
Why are they cutting the concrete?
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Many reason why starting with the standard Opps!!. Them poor workmanship or materiel, design change, items that weren't install first, removal of temporarily support and so on. Sometime things look great on paper, but it can't be done in the field or looks wrong
 
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