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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I'm sure we discussed this is the long distant past and someone found a reference that in fact Europe (including the UK) used to use the 1,2,3 system and changed to "ground floor" at some point, whereas the USA (and presumably Canada, didn't). Edit: Here it is - From Lucy:
My rather elderly Shorter Oxford gives the following:
First-floor. 1663.
1. The floor next above the ground floor 1865.
2. The ground floor. Now only U.S.http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=2056
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
From Jo's ref, courtesy of wsieber:
The change probably happened when the elevator-makers expanded their business from Great Britain to the European Continent. German "Stock" and French "Etage" intrinsically mean a plane above the ground, so "1.Stock" never meant anything else than the first "elevated" floor.
That makes sense, and explains the difference well.
OK, Jo, so how many floors would Brits say my hypothetical building has, i.e. G,1,2,3,4 (USn G/1,2,3,4,5)?
Check the whited out text below after you've decided!
I think it might be four floors, discounting ground floor
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I was in Montreal a couple of weeks back and they used RDC for Rez de Chaussee!Well, there are a lot of things in Quebec that are different than in the rest of Canada. [massive understatement] That is why it is good (in general) that belMarduk is aBoard, she can correct me if I over-generalize, my experience being limited to the west and far-east of Canada. In this case it's dxb I should thank for pointing that out. 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I was in Montreal a couple of weeks back
You were THAT close to me, and didn't run down here to say hello?! Ohhhhhhh, I am hurt hurt hurt! ;-) Whatever can you do to make it up to me? ...
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Joined: Jul 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
at both universities I'm familiar with, in very different parts of the country, the ground floor is the 200 floor.
You think that's odd? From what I've heard, at my university all of the buildings, except the dorms and older buildings I think, have floor systems based on the football stadium. Apparently all of the 100 floors of the buildings are at the same elevation as the playing field, which is actually sunk down in a small valley. It's a pretty hilly campus, so some of the buildings don't even have a 100 floor. The design school, where all of my classes are, doesn't have one and the 200 level is a basement. The building is so sprawling that there are entrances (to ground outside) on floors 3, 4, 5 and 6.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
The building is so sprawling that there are entrances (to ground outside) on floors 3, 4, 5 and 6.And you chose to attend this school??  It sounds like a not-so-fun house maze.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
my son started college at Carnegie Mellon U, (CMU) in Pittsburgh, and there was a similar building.. it was built into the hill side.. on one side you entered on the first floor, and the floors were not that big( 8 classrooms either side of the center hall.) on upper levels there were progressively more class room and offices.. till you got to the six floor, where, the floor space was more than double what it was on the first floor, and you could exit out to ground level on the top of the hill! this end of the building has 6 more floors..
the shape of the building was like a set of stairs.. each of the first 5 floors had a window less "basement' like area at the far end the was used for storage or other things that required dark (one was a small movie theater) it was an interesting use of the land, but strange to enter a building on the sixth floor!
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
CLEARLY a case of "Do as I say, not as I do." Sorry, Jazzo, but I find nothing redeeming about the building. I am particularly disenchanted by the institutional look of the hanging fluorescent light fixtures and the monochrome theme.
TEd
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>My school looks like this
Well if you can't trust an architect to draw a straight line ...
I like your building, Jazzo, it's better than many institutional boxes.
The top of my "to visit list" is this one -
[url]www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/edificio/el_edificio.htm[/ur]
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