Jackie, i am sure you have been in 2 or 3 story motels-- i know you like to travel, and they are common.
a Hotel has interior halls, a Motel, can be one or multi storied building, with exterior halls...
you get off the elevator, and walk down an open terrace, and all the motel rooms are entered from the terrace...
It is done this way for several reasons; economy, (the halls don't have to be heated, or carpeted) safety,(it is harder for anyone to break into a room if it visible from parking lot, and fire safety, too.)and generally because the original motels tended to be one story structures, the didn't have interior halls, but opened (for convience) right onto parking lots. The multi level motels followed the same design.
Often, the elevator is in a 'lobby', a glass walled room that also has vending machines and the ice machine. the lobby connects to two walkways, a H shape, with the lobby being the cross bar of the H, and all the rooms are entered from the walkway.
This style of building is very common in japan, where, interior halls are taxed as living space (even if they are common public halls) and exterior halls are not taxed at all!
(and boston triple deckers some times have back porchs, that are part of the back stairs. a person on the third floor, could walk down to the second, and the stair landing would be part of the back porch. nothing but good manners keeping it private. Doesn't Chicago have similar building? )
The walkways (catwalks)in my co-op have rules that they can not be used as terraces.. nothing can be put on them.
OP
