| Gautam Bhatia, "Fall off the Empire"
|
http://www.architexturez.net/FILES/folio/sketches-gautam.bhatia/empire-index.shtml
| (thanks for Cryptome Link, Anand)
18 August 2004:
http://cryptome.org/rnc-prep-04.htm
Previous reports on the RNC:
http://cryptome.org/rnc-prep-01.htm
http://cryptome.org/rnc-prep-02.htm
http://cryptome.org/rnc-prep-03.htm
Cryptome toured the Empire State Building yesterday, took the photos
below. ESB's located a couple of blocks east of Madison Square Garden
where the Republican National Convention will be held, and offers a
singular panoramic view of New York City, the Garden, the nightspots
where the GOP nobbies will hoedown, and eyeball of targets galore
outside and inside the building -- which itself is bragged locally to be
No. 1 Iconic NYC Bullseye, "come rent courageously at a discount."
The tour and photo-taking used a couple of hours, most of that waiting
in line to get uptop and back down. It's a two-stage ride, a fast
elevator to the 80th floor, then 6 floors to the 86th floor observatory.
For the last flight, due to crowds waiting, near rioting, to get on the
elevators, harried attendants suggested using the stairs, which we did
up and down.
Most of the "no re-entry" fire doors in the stairwell were partly open
to the building interior floors, probably for ventilation. A sweltering
guard was seen through one of the doors. Open doors in stairwells is
serious fire code lapse. It is also a grave security lapse for
attendants did not accompany visitors. Guarding an open door does not
relieve the code violation. Some of the doors appeared to have defective
code-requried automatic closers.
Some of the "floors" were double-height, which migh indicate they housed
mechanical and electrical equipment, considered to be the most hazardous
spaces in a building which require by code extra measures of safety and
fire protection, with fire-proof, self-closing doors obligatory.
Unescorted on the way to the stair, we passed offices on the 80th floor,
an architect's name on the door of one, a professional colleague, and we
wondered if our colleague was aware that safety and security measures
ostentatiously in force at the lobby were being breached high up in the
structure. Probably not: few occupants in high-rise buildings regularly
examine exit stairs before a disaster, architects least likely.
The visitor accommodations appeared overloaded for safe occupancy and
exit in an emergency, although that often happens in tourist traps
during peak seasons, not only in NYC. Still, this is the Greatest City
in the World's No. 1 showpiece for safety and security. No. 1 after the
previous No. 1 safe-and-secure pair failed safe and became the burg's
No. 1 disaster gawk.