If a train got stuck in the middle of a tunnel and passengers had to be evacuated through the staircases, Mr. Bauer said they would have to walk half a mile in either direction to reach one.
But Mr. Bauer said an evacuation through those staircases would be a "last resort" because they are so narrow that emergency personnel cannot descend while passengers are evacuating, and the 10-story staircases have no landing area to allow someone to rest while others can proceed.
They have completed two substantial congress halls in Spain: one a crystalline meteor in the rolling hills outside Cáceres, the other a giant harbour-front fun-shed in Cartagena, a translucent box through which staircases zigzag and brightly coloured ramps slice.
By far the best behind-the-scenes view of the Guastavino engineering system can be had every other Saturday at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as part of the aptly named vertical tour, which involves a 12-story ascent through spiral staircases up the south side of the nave.
The number of persons passing through the staircases was expressed per 24 h.
16 Thus, although no data about elevator use were obtained during the study, we were able to ascertain that changes in the number of passages through the staircases were not just due to changes in building occupancy.
Recordings of the number of passages through the staircases from one measurement site were missing on three separate days (0.4% of all measurements) owing to technical failure of the person counter.
"I love sitting on the sofa and being able to look through the staircase into the study and out through the window.
Thick, black smoke was spreading fast through the staircase and as the blaze spread through the upper floors, the heat was intense.
As Mr Gergiev plunged his orchestra into the dramatic Montagues and Capulets suite from Sergei Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet", the video backdrop showed a crystal ball flying through the new theatre: up the shiny staircases, through the foyer, in and out of the dressing rooms, over the rooftop and up into the sky.Mr Gergiev too barely keeps his feet on the ground.
Students at the institute crammed through a staircase thickly blanketed with glass out to the street, where hundreds stood in awe, looking at the sky.
