Thirteenth floor
Encyclopedia
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
of a multi-level building that is often omitted in countries where the number is considered unlucky
Triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number ; it is a superstition and related to a specific fear of Friday the 13th, called paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.The term was first used by Isador Coriat in Abnormal...
. Omitting the 13th floor may take a variety of forms; the most common include denoting what would otherwise be considered the thirteenth floor as level 14, giving the thirteenth floor an alternate designation such as "12A" or "M" (the thirteenth letter of the English alphabet), or closing the 13th floor to public occupancy or access (e.g., by designating it as a mechanical floor
Mechanical floor
A mechanical floor, mechanical penthouse, or mechanical level is a storey of a high-rise building that is dedicated to mechanical and electronics equipment. "Mechanical" is the most commonly used term, but words such as utility, technical, service, and plant are also used...
).
Reasons for omitting a thirteenth floor include triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia
Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number ; it is a superstition and related to a specific fear of Friday the 13th, called paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.The term was first used by Isador Coriat in Abnormal...
on the part of the building's owner or builder, or a desire by the building owner or landlord to prevent problems that may arise with superstitious tenants, occupants, or customers. Based on an internal review of records, Dilip Rangnekar of Otis Elevators estimates that 85% of the buildings with elevators did not have a floor named the 13th floor. Future building designers, fearing a fire on the 13th floor, or fearing tenants' superstitions about the rumor, decided to omit having a 13th floor listed on their elevator numbering. This practice became commonplace, and eventually found its way into mainstream culture and building design.
Origin
The origin of skipping the thirteenth floor when installing elevators is not known. However during the advent of early skyscrapers, New York architectural critics warned developers not to exceed the height of the 13th floor. These critics insisted buildings rising above the 13th floor (125 feet) would lead to increased street congestion, ominous shadows and lower property values. Nevertheless, in a work published in 1939, sociologist Otto NeurathOtto Neurath
Otto Neurath was an Austrian philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist...
compared the use of money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
in an economy, which he saw as unnecessary, to the superstition of not installing the thirteenth floor: merely a social convention.
Skipped
Most commonly, it is skipped altogether. The floor numbered 14 is in fact the thirteenth floor, and 13 is skipped altogether on the elevator console. Any calculations involving the height of a building based on the height of a floor will take this into account.12A
Sometimes the floor is simply renumbered as 12A or 12B; this does not affect the numbers of the higher floors.Special designations
Other buildings will often use names for certain floors to avoid giving a floor on the building the number 13 designation. One such example is the Radisson HotelRadisson Hotels
Radisson Hotels is one of the leading, full-service global hotel companies with more than 420 locations in 73 countries. The first Radisson Hotel was built in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1909, and was named after the 17th-century French explorer Pierre-Esprit Radisson...
in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, where the 13th floor is called the Pool floor. Another example is the Sheraton on the Falls
Sheraton on the Falls
Sheraton on the Falls is a 22-story Fallsview hotel located within the Falls Avenue Entertainment Complex in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.-Location:...
in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where the 13th floor consists solely of a restaurant.
Uninhabited
Sometimes, the floor is put to some other use, such as a mechanical floorMechanical floor
A mechanical floor, mechanical penthouse, or mechanical level is a storey of a high-rise building that is dedicated to mechanical and electronics equipment. "Mechanical" is the most commonly used term, but words such as utility, technical, service, and plant are also used...
. Such usage is also the subject of conspiracy theories (see below).
Letter M
Because the letter MM
M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water...
is the 13th letter in the English alphabet, some people may use a letter M as a substitute for the floor numbered 13, such as 12, M, 14, and so forth. In Richmond, Virginia, the Monroe Park Towers has a 13th floor, but it is used for mechanical equipment and is only accessible from the freight elevator or the stairs. The M designation on the elevator buttons of the freight elevator can also be construed as meaning the "Mechanical" level in this particular building, or as a "Mezzanine
Mezzanine
Mezzanine may refer to:* Mezzanine , an intermediate floor between main floors of a building* Mezzanine, in technology, can refer to a thin sheet of plastic insulating different parts of circuitry from each other in cramped environments, such as laptop interiors* Mezzanine board, or daughterboard,...
" level.
Variant
Similarly, new buildings in some parts of ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
omit the fourth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, etc. floors, as the word "four" (Hanzi: 四) sounds like "death" (死 – pronounced "sì" and "sǐ", respectively) in Mandarin, the predominant language for the country, and most other Chinese languages. A small number of buildings also follow the American tradition of omitting the thirteenth floor, with the fifteenth floor immediately following the twelfth.
In South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, buildings tend to include the fourth floor in spite of similar pronunciation issues in the Korean language, though some newer buildings may substitute the letter F in the place of the number 4.
Conspiracy theory
Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that the thirteenth floor in government buildings is not really missing, but actually contains top-secret governmental departments, or more generally that it is proof of something sinister or clandestineSecrecy
Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups, perhaps while sharing it with other individuals...
going on. This implication is often carried over, implicitly or explicitly, into popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
; for example in:
- the films The Thirteenth FloorThe Thirteenth FloorThe Thirteenth Floor is a 1999 science fiction film directed by Josef Rusnak and loosely based upon Simulacron-3 , a novel by Daniel F. Galouye...
, Nightmare on the 13th Floor, and 1408 - the hidden research and development labs of Network 23 in the television program Max HeadroomMax Headroom (TV series)Max Headroom is a British-produced American science fiction television series by Chrysalis/Lakeside Productions that aired in the United States on ABC from March 1987 to May 1988. The series was based on the Channel 4 British TV pilot Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future...
- the top-secret research and development division of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
in the fifth book of the series, Mostly HarmlessMostly HarmlessMostly Harmless is a novel by Douglas Adams and the fifth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It is described on the cover of the first editions as "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Trilogy"... - the computer game Floor 13Floor 13 (game)Floor 13 is a single-player computer game set in the United Kingdom, where the player is the director of a secret governmental agency involved in clandestine domestic operations. The headquarters is hidden on the thirteenth floor of a building in London Docklands, hence the title...
by Virgin InteractiveVirgin InteractiveVirgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group... - the sci-fi comedy Red DwarfRed DwarfRed Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
where "floor 13" referred to a secret brig which was several decks high. - the book CompanyCompany (novel)Company is a book written by Max Barry. In 2006 it became Barry's third published novel, following Jennifer Government in 2003. The novel is set in a modern corporation.-Plot summary:...
by Max BarryMax BarryMax Barry is a contemporary Australian author. He also maintains a blog on various topics, including writing, marketing and politics... - the SupermanSupermanSuperman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
story in Action ComicsAction ComicsAction Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
#448 (June 1975) featured a secret 13th floor used to teleport alien tourists from another planet to visit Earth. - the level "The 13th Floor" in the computer game Tomb Raider: Chronicles
- the episode "Grey 17 Is MissingGrey 17 Is MissingGrey 17 Is Missing is an episode from the third season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5.-Synopsis:Garibaldi investigates an abandoned level of the station. Delenn is installed as head of the Rangers, but Neroon believes her to be a megalomaniac with messianic delusions...
" of the TV series Babylon 5Babylon 5Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
has a similar theme of a "missing" floor number actually containing a hidden floor with dark secrets. - The psychedelic rock band The 13th Floor Elevators
It is widely believed that Canary Wharf's One Canada Square
One Canada Square
One Canada Square is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is the tallest completed building in the United Kingdom since 1991, standing at above ground level and containing 50 storeys...
houses a physical plant
Physical plant
Physical plant or mechanical plant refers to the necessary infrastructure used in support and maintenance of a given facility. The operation of these facilities, or the department of an organization which does so, is called "plant operations" or facility management...
room on its level 13 but this is just another example of undeserved notoriety on the part of the 13th floor. One Canada Square's plant areas are in its basements (Levels B3 to M1) and above Level 50 (Level M2). The floor directly above level 12 is level 14.