Wow!

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

I'd heard that the hotel was small, but I had no idea just HOW small it was - I feel like William Shatner at the end of season 2 on original Trek. ^*

Just a suggestion: If there's enough Security available, it would be a great idea to station someone outside the elevator banks on every floor to avoid overloading. And whoever it was who had the idea to require everyone to exit at the top and bottom floors: thank you! "Up to go down" may have been acceptable at the Park Plaza, but it's definitely not an option at the Hyatt.

Looking forward to the next Arisia...and hoping that after that, we'll have a bigger hotel...

PS - One suggestion: since a lot of editions of Clear Ether disappeared kind of quickly, perhaps PDFs could be posted on the Arisia website?

---

* - Specifically, right after he took off his girdle.

Comments

[doobie.livejournal.com]

There's definitely not enough security/gophers/volunteers for EVERY floor, though we tried to put someone on each elevator when it was busy. This helped ensure that if someone was waiting on a floor the elevator would stop there with room sooner (most of the time).

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

If Arisia uses this hotel again (as an attendee that didn't stay at the con overnight, I'd give them about a C+) then the dealer's room and art show can't be on the top floors. That's just adding to the overloaded elevator traffic.

Also, if there's ever a fire in the hotel handicapped guests are going to die.

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

As a temporarily-handicapped guest (back spasms made it difficult for me to stand or walk, even with prescription painkillers), I have to say that I had to miss most of the con - because I simply could not walk up the stairs. And yes, if there had been a fire I don't know if I would have survived.

Actually, I'm horrified to think about it. An absolutely unbreakable bottleneck of 14 people in a 16-floor hotel? What homicidal architect designed the Hyatt? And what sort of lunatics approved that design?

My blood is actually running cold now, thinking of it. I'm just glad it didn't cross my mind over the weekend!

[tehuti.livejournal.com]

Imhotep?

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is that hotel was not designed for Arisia-sized events. Their function space is quite handy for weddings (up to about 300-400 guests) on the top floors or business meetings on the first floor. No one was thinking 2000 people when the hotel was designed. Gaylaxicon a few years ago was about 750 and that was at the outer limit of comfortable.

It's not ideal, but with less than a year to find a hotel it was the best of several alternatives.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

You aren't supposed to use elevators during a fire and they usually return to the ground floor and stay there if there is a fire. That's true of all buildings, if the Park Plaza has a fire the evacuation will be by stairs also.
The fire department can operate the lifts to evacuate disabled people if they think it safe, or they can be carried down stairs if the lifts are inoperable. The stairwells of the Hyatt are behind fire doors from most of the building, so should remain usable even if there is a fire in the middle of a floor.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

There is alas no other place to put the dealers room or art show. None. Every available inch of function space was used.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

Well, then this particular hotel doesn't meet convention requirements and shouldn't be used again. Something has to change for next year; last weekend's situation was not only grossly inconvenient but was actually unsafe. If someone had called the fire marshal Saturday morning, when the only visible access to the second floor was a one-person wide broken escalator, the convention would have been shut down. (And, yes, I asked around if there was another stairway. I eventually found the fire stairs, but no one on the first floor seemed to know where they were. )

[redknight.livejournal.com]

The stairs up from the first floor may not have been well marked, but the stairs DOWN from the upper floors (what the fire marshall really cares about) seemed to be well marked with illuminated exit signs.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

If you know of a hotel in the Boston area that is *available*, *reasonably priced* and better than this one, please do let the con-comm know!

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

In the case of fire, handicapped guests are SOL anyway - in most elevator systems, when the fire alarm goes off, the elevators return to ground floor and refuse to move, because it's not safe to run elevators during a fire situation for any number of reasons.

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

Well, "SOL" is a bit harsh since firefighters can re-enable the elevators to move people; but really, you're no worse off in the hotel in a fire situation than you would be on the 14th floor of any other building.

[fireheart.livejournal.com]

I remember you. You're the guy from the panel who complained about not having enough LJ friends. I shall do what I can to fix.

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

It might help just to emphasize more to attendees that they *need* to think of people other than themselves when riding the elevator if things are going to run in any way even resembling smoothly, and as such need to get out of the elevator at the bottom, even if they only rode down so they could go further up.

And yes, for people who are handicapped, permanently or temporarily, elevator allowances need to be made. And were, every time I saw an issue.

Anyway, the policy was never clearly articulated that I saw, much less with the reasons for it. I think that would help a lot to get people to voluntarily implement it, with less need for elevator guards.

[madfilkentist]

One thing which I saw being done once, and was probably done more than once, was to send up an empty elevator to 2 or 3 for all the people who'd been patiently waiting. In some cases the only realistic option for these people was to go down to 1, be kicked off the elevator if necessary, and go to the back of the line. Perhaps this could somehow be made more systematic next time, though coordinating between floors would be tricky.

[xdaemon.livejournal.com]

I will add to this that the whole "overload" thing about the elevators was a load. Today (yes, I stayed to Monday) the elevators were just as bad about dying, even though they were empty and relatively prompt. Elevator 3 clearly has an issue opening on the 8th floor, it got stuck at least 4 times today there, once with me in it. At no point did any of the 'vators have even 7 people in them. Their elevators were just broken.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

The elevators are being refurbished at the moment; in theory number 4 should have been finished now but was not. By next year they should all be done.

[xdaemon.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, #4 is the *last* to be done.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

No, elevator number 4 was the first to receive major maintenance, leaving us with the worst of both worlds: N-1 elevators all in need of overhaul.
(my source is one of the hotel liaison)

[xdaemon.livejournal.com]

My source was a concomm meeting in the hotel, back when elevator #2 was under renovation. Sorry, the hotel liason was mistaken.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

Yes, he was, you are correct. Sorry I got that wrong.

I hope they get more repairs in the next 11 months then.

[jasra]

Just to be clear, there's only one elevator left to be renovated. Hopefully they'll get the bugs out of the other ones.

(That may be what you were saying the discussion is getting confusing.)

[doobie.livejournal.com]

One issue I heard was more an issue of balance than weight. The load needs to be equally balanced, if a majority of the people are in the large glass part it is more apt to break down.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

Oh dear, I spent most of the time in the elevators with my nose to the glass going "ooooh, shiny!"

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

Well, the elevators were a serious problem for at least two people that I know - one of them my wife. She simply could not be anywhere near the glass. In fact, she mostly had to stay next to the door, facing away from the glass. Which may have increased the weight balancing problem.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed the elevators^*. They reminded me of the ones from Commando. :D

---

*

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

PDFs of Clear Ether are on the website--or should be.

When I took over an elevator, I got a lot of flack about making it empty. Even if they only had to step out and step right back in again. By Sunday, the elevator hosts had been well-trained.

[jasra]

I haven't seen a request to put the Clear Ethers on the website. If you know of some request sent it that I missed, please remail it to webmaster@.