Do Buildings Not Have 13 Floors

They didn t want to give anyone a reason not to want to rent space in their building.

Do buildings not have 13 floors.

But as rational thought will dictate hotels and buildings higher than 12 floors of course have a 13th floor however they do away with it by simply renaming it something else. A good example is that some have suggested the 13th 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 clandestine going on. 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. Both the plaza and the waldorf astoria have labeled 13th floors.

More than 80 percent of high rises lack a 13th floor. Many airports skip the 13th gate. With that said some of nyc s most famous buildings do have 13th floors. Starting in the 20th century when skyscrapers began cropping up in bigger cities buildings overwhelmingly forwent marking the 13th floor because of simple economics.

Eventually this time and culture spanning superstition made its way to the architecture of america. You won t find it on the panels and you won t find it in the stairwells. A lot of older buildings still have the 13th floor and the palmer house hilton is a 140 year old property so it s tough to say whether the developers were even concerned with that at the time adds a hotel customer service rep at the hotel. Many cities do not.

Pulling a number out of the floor plan serves to make a building seem taller. Italians omit the number 13 from their national lottery. That tradition stuck until the need for taller buildings came about in the 20 th century. Skyscrapers did not come about until 1885.

On streets in florence italy the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half. Image zoom getty. Omitting the 13th floor may take a variety of forms. The thirteenth floor is a designation of a level of a multi level building that is often omitted in countries where the number 13 is considered unlucky.

The empire state building has one. Hospitals and hotels regularly have no room number 13. Today 85 percent of elevator panels don t have the number 13. So does the flatiron as did the twin towers.

Airplanes have no 13th aisle. While the 14 th floor is actually the 13 th floor for obvious structural reasons guests seem to take comfort. One world trade center includes it as do all hilton international hotels. As one of the city s oldest hotels the luxurious palmer house hilton still has its 13th floor.