What's Going Down With Elevator Upgrades

Many students have noticed, and voiced concerns, about the elevator improvement projects in the Broadway Edison Building. Several elevators in the building have needed upgrades for a while, with elevators near the south plaza and north Broadway entrances frequently being out of order. However, those elevators are also crucial for students with mobility issues.
According to David Ernevad, Director of Facilities Operations and Capital Projects, the following improvements are underway:

Elevator 7, near the 1702 Harvard entrance, will begin to be modernized April 1st. It will remain closed until the end of Spring Quarter.
Elevator 6, by the south entrance of the BE Building, is also being shut down to support restroom renovation. It will remain closed until the beginning of June.
Elevator 5, adjacent to 6, will remain open.
Additionally, Elevator 11, near Culinary and Apparel, will also remain open.

Having only two working elevators in the heavily used BE building may cause backups and service issues.

Cebrina Chavez of the Disability Office and Kevin Bowersox-Johnson, Accessibility Committee Chair, have been in discussion with Facilities to create a solution for this potential issue. An idea proposed by Facilities in order to maintain ADA accessibility is to allow student access to elevators 3 and 4, which are fully accessible and run from the basement to the fifth floor. However, these elevators would require students to be provided with access cards as well as walking them through the process of using them.

As these projects approach mid-March, the SCC Communications Office will formalize community information. For now, though, Facilities, Communications, and Disability Support are available for further information. It is the hope of all involved with this project that both staff and students can be provided with up to date information to avoid confusion and let students know their options.

Author

Morgan Wigmore

Morgan is a Seattle Central alumni currently attending Oregon State University where she is majoring in Anthropology. In addition to writing, she enjoys painting and linguistics. She lives in a very small house with a very fat cat.