Elevator? No, thanks, I'll take the stairs.

So I'm on my way to my usual run and I get to the elevators and push the button to go down. The doors creek open which is kind of odd. Intuition makes me a little weary about going in, but I need to go out for my run, so I step in. The doors close and the elevator doesn't move. Uh oh. I push some buttons trying to get it open, but nothing happens. I'm stuck in an elevator 17 stories high. I don't know if you would be unnerved, but the idea of ramming to down the ground at high speeds was whizzing through my head. The elevator starts to rattle and seems to be moving a little bit. I was thinking.... please just let me get through this alive. So I wait in this elevator which seems like an eternity (probably a minute in real time) and try to get someone on the emergency phone for help. Finally, after saying what I think are my final prayers, the elevator opens up.

They get the technician out to look at the problem. He takes it down for precautionary reasons; they were having troubles with it earlier. The technician says to me "I wouldn't be worried, this happens all the time to me in testing in new buildings" Umm.. I'm not a technician, I'm not used being stuck in elevators thinking I'm going to plummet to my imminent death.

So in addition to being stuck in the elevator, Bell Towers does air pressure testing regularly. They did this work until May 12th. So what does this entail?

1) High winds blowing through your hallways.

2) Limited usage of the elevator from 4-10PM. What's Limited Usage?
In order to used the elevator, a resident has to:
call the front desk
concierge calls testers to stop testing
elevator operator comes to your floor
So basically leaving your unit is a five minute process.


Again, I'm a newbie to "luxury" hi-rise units, but this was not my expectation moving in.

















[click to maximize] note: this notice was sent in early April. They had already been conducting tests prior to this.