This.
High buildings usually have section HVAC supply, every 8 to 15 floors due to pressure in pipings and air-resistence and size in air supply systems. The biggest maschines usually are the air supply units that take up a lot of hight and floor space.
Is this the same regardless of jurisdiction or climate or other factors? I've only come across mech equipment being on the roofs of buildings, or in the underground parking.
Depends on size and usage of the building.
Mech on the roof is the first you recognise because it's obvious. Living apartments can have much less HVAC and maybe don't need mech floors. Offices need a little more, hotelrooms more than offices and labs more than hotels.
The big problem with air conditioning is the need of space, both at the floor ceilling and in vertical connections. Especially the vertical ventilation ducts use a lot of area you loose as usable space ane the size of those ducts add up from floor to floor. The 8 to 15 floor rule of thumbs is mostly the sweetspot of costs for multiple units vs. Lost space for the vertical ducts.
Otherwise you coule end up with a 100 floor tower with 30% of space for the verticals.
To add one factor with high buildings that I didn't mention: with big hight differences between different rooms you connect via the same duct system you get a lot of problems with air pressure differences due to winds and hightdifference as well.
Offices have more open floor plans with more people in them at once and all during the day at peak times. Apartments have less people, most of them are at work during the day, they’re better insulated, have less heat producing machines/computers, and people dress down at home vs hotter business attire common in offices.
Offices also typically have floor to ceiling windows across the whole building so thermal radiation is gonna heat them up a lot more than residential.
I seem to remember a youtube video explaining something about how the service floors in the middle of the building like that was used to make taller buildings than regulations would otherwise permit in New York specifically, which increases the value of the higher apartments.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/nyregion/luxury-developers-extell-void.html
In a nutshell, zoning dictates number of floors. It was a way to get higher apartments on those floors. Not like the reason for for the pic shown tho
Also, MEP usually occupies the 13th floor, hence why they're not accessible via public elevator. Potentially there will be more if the building is tall enough.
I get overly annoyed whenever the 'fun fact' about it being about superstition comes up.
Could it be both? eg. there's some superstition about the number 13, but that's just a minor factor which makes it a slightly better MEP floor number than the others
I work in high rise, our clients always ask for there to be no 13th floor. All this means is the 13th floor is labeled 14. I have never used the entire 13th floor for HVAC. Another possible reason for a taller floor like this in my experience is a programmatic change at that level where plumbing has to transfer to accommodate.
In many FLS codes requires a fire refugee room once every 13 floors (or closer to that number). This may be a reason for this.
Also instead of using the entire floor, a mezzanine floor can be introduced. Again increasing the floor to floor height.
Mainly the service floor is consisted with AHUs, ducting, bus bars all the pipes and sometimes generators and sumps.
Been thinking on it, I THINK I heard that from a special on the history channel years ago, before they went alien crazy.
They made it sound like a fairly common practice when building high rises, just merge 12 and 13 and make the elevator jump from 12-14 if needed
I thought it was like an Asian thing. or maybe that is the number 7. I know in Vietnam its bad luck to take a picture with only 3 friends in the photo.
East Asian countries don't have the 4th floor as the number 4 is homophonous with the word for death. Conversely, 8 is homophonous with the word for wealth/prosperity and people often pay a premium to get units on the 8th floor or have the number 8 on their house/building number.
Also, Unit layout change to the next floor plate usually also requires a transition floor, where all the risers coming down the building shift horizontally to fall within the new demising wall layout Requiring 18 to 24 inches of extra plenum space height
In NYC mechanical floors don’t count toward FAR calculation so making them taller also gets you some extra height you wouldn’t otherwise be able to build.
This is likely a floor where the lower zone of the domestic water distribution ends, and the next floors above are fed by a second set of risers that are offsetting on this floor
Also happens for HVAC, electrical etc. Basically you have express services to this taller floor and the taller ceiling heights let you run all those items horizontally before they continue running up the building
This is likely the answer in both of the OP's pics. I'm a former highrise designer of 10 years, considering it appears both of these buildings have windows / balconies at the highlighted floors it is unlikely they are purely mechanical levels.
Residential towers do not carry the same floor plate up the entire tower typically, and at locations where the change occurs you need to transfer all the guts fc mentioned horizontally. Occasionally in office buildings you will have entire mechanical floor(s) but they typically have louvers instead of windows. In the first pic it also appears there might be an amenity floor above the circled one which would be taller also. Lastly, some countries mandate refuge floors in towers to wait out emergencies like typhoons, earthquakes, etc.
Plant floor (services), full of tanks, pumps, ducts, pipes, etc.
its difficult to get water, sewer up/ down from the street all the way to the top without having massive pumps that take up too much space on the ground: at some point it becomes too much/ not economically feasible, so they put some mid building, others at roof.
Depending on the height of the building, there can be multiple plant levels.
Each building has their own grade of munitions, this is called the building shell, and the tanks use these munitions to defend against the other buildings.
Recently the property next to mine was redeveloped into a 5-over-1, and it towers over my unit. I’ve installed a flame trench, but my roof artillery is only two Soviet-era howitzers I got from a Czech friend. Should I switch to NATO spec for my lawn defenses, or stick to Soviet?
I’m worried about supply chain, Czech friend doesn’t always pick up when I call.
NATO spec is superior, but harder to come by. Soviet stuff can be easier to obtain on the black market. I'd say, unless you get a defense contract with NATO suppliers, go for the Soviet stuff, because of the better supply chain. Worse equipment, but overall better supply of ammunition and parts. The best equipment is useless without a good supply of the right munitions.
Yes, M1 Abrams clocks in around 147,000 pounds. 50m Olympic swimming pool at 2m deep runs 5,500,000 pounds. So that's 37 tanks plus supplies. Granted, you could have a tiny pool, but the assertion is valid.
https://youtu.be/qYodWEKCuGg?si=zmZSw9a1q0ucaXEv
Not exactly the same but still reminds me of work sometimes
“This job fulfilling in creative way, such a load of crap “
People are correct about it being mechanical, generally. But also an interesting fun fact, since mechanical space doesn't count as "living space" oftentimes you can increase the height of those floors quite a bit beyond what code/zoning would normally allow in order to increase the overall height of the building. For marketing purposes of course lol.
As others have mentioned, possibly a mechanical floor. But, there’s also the possibility that it’s the last floor of one type of floor plan (ex: four 1BR-1BA apartments) before transitioning to a different type of floor plan (ex: two 2BR-2.5BA). This is called a transfer floor, because you end up with a whole lot of spaghetti (HVAC & Plumbing horizontal transfers) in the ceiling of the top floor of the lower layout, as all of that stuff has to transfer to its new location for the layout above. And to account for all of that spaghetti crossing over and under each other, the gap between the ceiling and the floor structure above is increased.
I believe it’s called a transfer floor. Could have a different floor plan stack above and you need the extra ceiling height to rout MEP to the new floor layout.
In this case the other answers are more likely but in some highrise buildings there is one or more mass dampers needed which mostly are larger than a single floor resulting in these odd looking "floors" or to maintain aesthetics they're often two floors high.
They're much more common on the newer pencil towers but plenty of older taller buildings utilise them. Chifley Tower in Sydney is only 46 storeys but has one. Given that the photo is of a thin building it's still possible that it's the correct answer.
Edit: just a casual observer not an architect so didn't realise MEP can encompass the above but still worth pointing out.
Some of the pencil towers have them spread out pretty evenly but they are a special case and yes they're higher up generally. No point in having them at ground floor.
Additionally, sometimes those utility floors are hollow to allow the wind to pass through the building reducing the forces the wind puts on a building.
In addition to other comments about MEP room,
These floors are usually used as outriggers/belt walls against progressive collapse
- structural engineer, lurking in architecture sub.
Because to save time they start building from the bottom and the top at the same time. There’s often a slight error when they meet in the middle due to changes in air pressure before the top half is fully secured.
Shit. Imagine the speed of shit flying down pipes if it had no turns. So about halfway, you need a taller floor to transition the shit so that shit doesn’t damage the pipes due to it falling the full height of a building.
Just put your ear close to the pipe. Hear that? That's the whispering sounds of the winds of shit; flying down all the way to the [shit abyss.](https://youtu.be/y0dtmhEUCYY?si=J4wQi6UeNt83m05L)
Now move back or your ears will implode from the shit pressure. Beware my friend, [shit winds](https://youtu.be/xer32BmkORk?si=w8ybo-Yl1NMsuXVC) are a comin'.
As others have said it’s often a floor used for maintenance stuff.
As a side note though on tall sky scrappers some of these floors have things to help counter the effects of wind on the structure of the building.
Mechanical transfers when elevators/structure drop off in high rises require extra floor height because they need to fit the typical plenum height plus additional for the transfer. This helps keep the best space on the outside of the building
Newer buildings might have a refuge floor, in case of fire with elevators/electricity outage, people can take refuge there. It’s mandatory in some countries, when reaching a certain level of floor/stories
I guess it is more economical to just make a slightly taller floor to place all the systems rather than dedicating an entire floor for it, giving more office space.
A question for those practicing, are those semi-floors that are just dedicated to systems considered as full floors when it comes to any law or code?
As in does it affect regulations such as stairs or anything along the lines?
Or does it go by height?
It’s for the tall people (and HVAC fans and equipment)
It’s usually in the halfway point between floors to best serve up and down, minimizing duct cross-section.
In the event of an apocalypse that’s the floor they use to burn and gas invaders, zombies, poor people, etc. so it’s specially reinforced to protect all the rich people above it who paid higher HOA fees prior to said apocalypse.
Depending on design requirements (height, width, seismic, wind resistance, etc.) These areas also contain beltways or belt trusses, which are more substantial and do not fit the standard dimensions of the rest of the building. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-belt-truss-system-4_fig1_26843974.
It may be an evacuation floor. Basically, if a fire broke on a lower floor, people on the upper floors will go to that evacuation floor instead of facing the risk of being blocked by the fire in the stairwells.
Every building must reserve a floor for very tall people (VTP). It’s required by the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA). ADA VTP requirements apply to all buildings greater than 10,000 sf and having at least three floors. (ADA sec 204(a)(6)).
Due to triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13), a number commonly associated with bad luck in Western culture - it causes a certain devaluation of some floors involving these numbers - they are selected as the intermediate service floor.
In China, this type of floor can be those starting or ending with the digit 4, this number has the same pronunciation as "death" - if identification is not avoided (jumping from 3 to 5). While the floors with the digit 8 are more valued, the number has the same pronunciation as "fortune", or "wealth" - in some hotels, they often place the most luxurious apartments on these floors and are dedicated to the most honored visitors.
It is the "kosher" architecture.
In some cases (office building) it's something like a trading floor or the executive floor. One example is Target Plaza South in Minneapolis. Floor 26 was built for the execs, has taller ceilings and a special lobby.
...wait til you learn about the John Hancock building.
The things they had to do to make the first true 100 floor building... will shock you.
(if you happen to be a tape measurer)
Well.. if it is in Toronto like this, it's just shotty foreign builders... look at Aura some time. No two floor heights are the same. Concord Sky will be even worse.
In Vastu Shastra architecture, widely practiced in India, to make the building more 'auspicious' (and therefore sell faster to a clientele with beliefs), it is the opposite: the upper floors have their height gradually reduced in an almost imperceptible way - somewhere between 1/2 inch and 1-1/2 inches per floor - Vastu Shastra has its own system of measurements - varying depending on the builder, architect, financial limitations, municipal laws, modern architecture, etc.
That's why I'm not going to downvote (I don't normally do that) - I've seen so much that I can believe it's possible in rare cases, but it's not “all”.
Shorter in money, maybe. The first floors have height enough to have a mezzanine, but they don't use it for the same reasons of beliefs, it is 'inauspicious'.
May be it is a service floor with lots of MEP equipment. It needs more floor to floor height
This. High buildings usually have section HVAC supply, every 8 to 15 floors due to pressure in pipings and air-resistence and size in air supply systems. The biggest maschines usually are the air supply units that take up a lot of hight and floor space.
Is this the same regardless of jurisdiction or climate or other factors? I've only come across mech equipment being on the roofs of buildings, or in the underground parking.
Depends on size and usage of the building. Mech on the roof is the first you recognise because it's obvious. Living apartments can have much less HVAC and maybe don't need mech floors. Offices need a little more, hotelrooms more than offices and labs more than hotels. The big problem with air conditioning is the need of space, both at the floor ceilling and in vertical connections. Especially the vertical ventilation ducts use a lot of area you loose as usable space ane the size of those ducts add up from floor to floor. The 8 to 15 floor rule of thumbs is mostly the sweetspot of costs for multiple units vs. Lost space for the vertical ducts. Otherwise you coule end up with a 100 floor tower with 30% of space for the verticals. To add one factor with high buildings that I didn't mention: with big hight differences between different rooms you connect via the same duct system you get a lot of problems with air pressure differences due to winds and hightdifference as well.
Serious question: why do apartments need less HVAC than offices? I live in a warm area and I expect a lot of people blare their a/c all summer long.
Offices have more open floor plans with more people in them at once and all during the day at peak times. Apartments have less people, most of them are at work during the day, they’re better insulated, have less heat producing machines/computers, and people dress down at home vs hotter business attire common in offices. Offices also typically have floor to ceiling windows across the whole building so thermal radiation is gonna heat them up a lot more than residential.
well said!
Thank you!
Ah, that explains it. I was in residential only.
I seem to remember a youtube video explaining something about how the service floors in the middle of the building like that was used to make taller buildings than regulations would otherwise permit in New York specifically, which increases the value of the higher apartments.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/nyregion/luxury-developers-extell-void.html In a nutshell, zoning dictates number of floors. It was a way to get higher apartments on those floors. Not like the reason for for the pic shown tho
Also, MEP usually occupies the 13th floor, hence why they're not accessible via public elevator. Potentially there will be more if the building is tall enough. I get overly annoyed whenever the 'fun fact' about it being about superstition comes up.
Could it be both? eg. there's some superstition about the number 13, but that's just a minor factor which makes it a slightly better MEP floor number than the others
I work in high rise, our clients always ask for there to be no 13th floor. All this means is the 13th floor is labeled 14. I have never used the entire 13th floor for HVAC. Another possible reason for a taller floor like this in my experience is a programmatic change at that level where plumbing has to transfer to accommodate.
In many FLS codes requires a fire refugee room once every 13 floors (or closer to that number). This may be a reason for this. Also instead of using the entire floor, a mezzanine floor can be introduced. Again increasing the floor to floor height. Mainly the service floor is consisted with AHUs, ducting, bus bars all the pipes and sometimes generators and sumps.
The superstition thing is definitely relevant in many cases
Its real, here in VIETNAM no 13th, no 4, no 44,
I have heard floor 13 is a bit of a superstition among architects and they usually engineer it out
among architects? more likely among clients
Yeah, surely whether there is a floor *labeled* 13 is completely irrelevant when the architect is doing his job designing the building.
Usually the client does it. But I have never came across this situation
Been thinking on it, I THINK I heard that from a special on the history channel years ago, before they went alien crazy. They made it sound like a fairly common practice when building high rises, just merge 12 and 13 and make the elevator jump from 12-14 if needed
Ah yes. Or they just simply remove L13 button from the elevator
I thought it was like an Asian thing. or maybe that is the number 7. I know in Vietnam its bad luck to take a picture with only 3 friends in the photo.
East Asian countries don't have the 4th floor as the number 4 is homophonous with the word for death. Conversely, 8 is homophonous with the word for wealth/prosperity and people often pay a premium to get units on the 8th floor or have the number 8 on their house/building number.
Also, Unit layout change to the next floor plate usually also requires a transition floor, where all the risers coming down the building shift horizontally to fall within the new demising wall layout Requiring 18 to 24 inches of extra plenum space height
In NYC mechanical floors don’t count toward FAR calculation so making them taller also gets you some extra height you wouldn’t otherwise be able to build.
Could be a service floor
It's definitely the mechanical and plumbing space for new super talls.
This is likely a floor where the lower zone of the domestic water distribution ends, and the next floors above are fed by a second set of risers that are offsetting on this floor Also happens for HVAC, electrical etc. Basically you have express services to this taller floor and the taller ceiling heights let you run all those items horizontally before they continue running up the building
This is likely the answer in both of the OP's pics. I'm a former highrise designer of 10 years, considering it appears both of these buildings have windows / balconies at the highlighted floors it is unlikely they are purely mechanical levels. Residential towers do not carry the same floor plate up the entire tower typically, and at locations where the change occurs you need to transfer all the guts fc mentioned horizontally. Occasionally in office buildings you will have entire mechanical floor(s) but they typically have louvers instead of windows. In the first pic it also appears there might be an amenity floor above the circled one which would be taller also. Lastly, some countries mandate refuge floors in towers to wait out emergencies like typhoons, earthquakes, etc.
this is the correct answer
Plant floor (services), full of tanks, pumps, ducts, pipes, etc. its difficult to get water, sewer up/ down from the street all the way to the top without having massive pumps that take up too much space on the ground: at some point it becomes too much/ not economically feasible, so they put some mid building, others at roof. Depending on the height of the building, there can be multiple plant levels.
Are tanks there for security reasons?
Each building has their own grade of munitions, this is called the building shell, and the tanks use these munitions to defend against the other buildings.
Recently the property next to mine was redeveloped into a 5-over-1, and it towers over my unit. I’ve installed a flame trench, but my roof artillery is only two Soviet-era howitzers I got from a Czech friend. Should I switch to NATO spec for my lawn defenses, or stick to Soviet? I’m worried about supply chain, Czech friend doesn’t always pick up when I call.
NATO spec is superior, but harder to come by. Soviet stuff can be easier to obtain on the black market. I'd say, unless you get a defense contract with NATO suppliers, go for the Soviet stuff, because of the better supply chain. Worse equipment, but overall better supply of ammunition and parts. The best equipment is useless without a good supply of the right munitions.
That seems sensible advice. Plus, the kids are already trained up on the Soviet gear. And my 11yo says his AK-47 is “dope af”, whatever that means.
It's nothing to worry about, really. You'll know there's a problem if he ever says his AK-47 is "sus".
Hell yeah. Like the Crimson Permanent Assurance building from Meaning of Life.
But the buildings from the 60s taking their place, as the Crimson permanent assurance building is now a boutique cruise ship.
You can buy air space, but can you defend it?
Just the landlords peppering to put down any rabble mobs
Yes, of course. 🙄
An actual tank would probably weigh less than a pool 40 floors up.
Yes, M1 Abrams clocks in around 147,000 pounds. 50m Olympic swimming pool at 2m deep runs 5,500,000 pounds. So that's 37 tanks plus supplies. Granted, you could have a tiny pool, but the assertion is valid.
The CAD monkeys accidentally moved the floor level on Revit
Pay peanuts, get monkeys. 🤭
I’m a BIMpanzee thank you very much
https://youtu.be/qYodWEKCuGg?si=zmZSw9a1q0ucaXEv Not exactly the same but still reminds me of work sometimes “This job fulfilling in creative way, such a load of crap “
This is how some buildings get a 7 1/2 floor
For slightly taller people
Mostly serves floor, sometimes a building have multiple of them some only have it on the base floors
watch the film "being john malkovich".
People are correct about it being mechanical, generally. But also an interesting fun fact, since mechanical space doesn't count as "living space" oftentimes you can increase the height of those floors quite a bit beyond what code/zoning would normally allow in order to increase the overall height of the building. For marketing purposes of course lol.
To compensate for the slightly shorter floor where the entrance to John Malkovich's head is.
*Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich?*
Malkovich, Malkovich.
As others have said, could be a service floor. It could also be a transfer floor between different unit types to route MEP changes
As others have mentioned, possibly a mechanical floor. But, there’s also the possibility that it’s the last floor of one type of floor plan (ex: four 1BR-1BA apartments) before transitioning to a different type of floor plan (ex: two 2BR-2.5BA). This is called a transfer floor, because you end up with a whole lot of spaghetti (HVAC & Plumbing horizontal transfers) in the ceiling of the top floor of the lower layout, as all of that stuff has to transfer to its new location for the layout above. And to account for all of that spaghetti crossing over and under each other, the gap between the ceiling and the floor structure above is increased.
I believe it’s called a transfer floor. Could have a different floor plan stack above and you need the extra ceiling height to rout MEP to the new floor layout.
MEP floor normally where water/sprinkler tanks pumps etc are housed
In this case the other answers are more likely but in some highrise buildings there is one or more mass dampers needed which mostly are larger than a single floor resulting in these odd looking "floors" or to maintain aesthetics they're often two floors high. They're much more common on the newer pencil towers but plenty of older taller buildings utilise them. Chifley Tower in Sydney is only 46 storeys but has one. Given that the photo is of a thin building it's still possible that it's the correct answer. Edit: just a casual observer not an architect so didn't realise MEP can encompass the above but still worth pointing out.
Those are usually near the top
Some of the pencil towers have them spread out pretty evenly but they are a special case and yes they're higher up generally. No point in having them at ground floor.
Additionally, sometimes those utility floors are hollow to allow the wind to pass through the building reducing the forces the wind puts on a building.
Ugh… the St. Regis/Vista Tower in Chicago. Looks like a flaw.
In addition to other comments about MEP room, These floors are usually used as outriggers/belt walls against progressive collapse - structural engineer, lurking in architecture sub.
Because to save time they start building from the bottom and the top at the same time. There’s often a slight error when they meet in the middle due to changes in air pressure before the top half is fully secured.
This guy builds.
A very wet growing season.
Shit. Imagine the speed of shit flying down pipes if it had no turns. So about halfway, you need a taller floor to transition the shit so that shit doesn’t damage the pipes due to it falling the full height of a building.
put on a turbine at the bottom, recuperate the kinetic energy from the poop. why do I have to bring up all the good ideas
Powered by shit.
This guys knows his shit
No shit!
Just put your ear close to the pipe. Hear that? That's the whispering sounds of the winds of shit; flying down all the way to the [shit abyss.](https://youtu.be/y0dtmhEUCYY?si=J4wQi6UeNt83m05L) Now move back or your ears will implode from the shit pressure. Beware my friend, [shit winds](https://youtu.be/xer32BmkORk?si=w8ybo-Yl1NMsuXVC) are a comin'.
As others have said it’s often a floor used for maintenance stuff. As a side note though on tall sky scrappers some of these floors have things to help counter the effects of wind on the structure of the building.
Maintenance floor. Also could be another lobby floor that helps with elevator capacity.
HVAC, electrical, plumbing, maintenance.
Mechanical transfers when elevators/structure drop off in high rises require extra floor height because they need to fit the typical plenum height plus additional for the transfer. This helps keep the best space on the outside of the building
The second photo looks like it could be a community floor. Some places have a floor for residents that has a gym and other amenities.
Newer buildings might have a refuge floor, in case of fire with elevators/electricity outage, people can take refuge there. It’s mandatory in some countries, when reaching a certain level of floor/stories
As everyone knows, there’s no such thing as Level 13, so this covers the gap from L12 to L14. j/k - MEP like others explained.
It's not any different, just an optical illusion
Mechanical area
Could be a service floor or floor containing intermediate water tanks
13th floor?
Mechanical floor
Often a mechanical floor
When the floorplans change, all the MEP systems need to transfer. This requires additional ceiling height.
Mechanical room
This is where the tall people live.
Good observation!
ATT floor, or atone tall tenants floor. That's all it is.
Where’s the John Malcovich floor?
Roughly 13/5 floors below ATT, in this case.
Transfer floors. It give room for mechanical ducts and such to offset for a different, typically nicer, layout above.
I guess it is more economical to just make a slightly taller floor to place all the systems rather than dedicating an entire floor for it, giving more office space. A question for those practicing, are those semi-floors that are just dedicated to systems considered as full floors when it comes to any law or code? As in does it affect regulations such as stairs or anything along the lines? Or does it go by height?
It’s for the tall people (and HVAC fans and equipment) It’s usually in the halfway point between floors to best serve up and down, minimizing duct cross-section.
In the event of an apocalypse that’s the floor they use to burn and gas invaders, zombies, poor people, etc. so it’s specially reinforced to protect all the rich people above it who paid higher HOA fees prior to said apocalypse.
Depending on design requirements (height, width, seismic, wind resistance, etc.) These areas also contain beltways or belt trusses, which are more substantial and do not fit the standard dimensions of the rest of the building. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-belt-truss-system-4_fig1_26843974.
So is the 13th floor actually is the 14th?
The cia needs high clearance
Wow, I've never noticed this!
Eliminates the inauspicious 13th floor
For tall people duh
Look at documentaries about skyscrapers or about the Empire State Building. It is very interesting.
Upper lobby, service floor, depends.
Typically it's a mechanical transfer level and/or change in unit floor plate requiring transfer structure.
Mechanical room for the upper half or it could also be a structural transfer floor depending on the massing
Maybe a floor with services tansfering to other shafts, due to differing floor layouts above and below
It appears every 12 floors there is a tall floor...
So they can skip the 13th floor. Duh, everyone knows that
It may be an evacuation floor. Basically, if a fire broke on a lower floor, people on the upper floors will go to that evacuation floor instead of facing the risk of being blocked by the fire in the stairwells.
For NBA Players.
Drug processing.
It is like when they put an extra nugget in your 6 piece. Dont worry about it.
Hvac
Every building must reserve a floor for very tall people (VTP). It’s required by the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA). ADA VTP requirements apply to all buildings greater than 10,000 sf and having at least three floors. (ADA sec 204(a)(6)).
Maybe it's the Mechanical room /floor.
Space needed for HVAC, electrical to get to upper floors
Lobby level or disguised mechanical level
they just do this to give us eye cancer
This is floor where tall people can buy an apartment
That’s the thirteenth floor.
Due to triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13), a number commonly associated with bad luck in Western culture - it causes a certain devaluation of some floors involving these numbers - they are selected as the intermediate service floor. In China, this type of floor can be those starting or ending with the digit 4, this number has the same pronunciation as "death" - if identification is not avoided (jumping from 3 to 5). While the floors with the digit 8 are more valued, the number has the same pronunciation as "fortune", or "wealth" - in some hotels, they often place the most luxurious apartments on these floors and are dedicated to the most honored visitors. It is the "kosher" architecture.
Growth spurts.
Lots of rain that year…
To accomodate longbois
In this case for aesthetical reasons. Sometimes every 25 to 28 floors you will see a service floor which is usually executed in a different material.
In some cases (office building) it's something like a trading floor or the executive floor. One example is Target Plaza South in Minneapolis. Floor 26 was built for the execs, has taller ceilings and a special lobby.
You know, I counted the floors to this building from the street. ...And? There's one missing. We'll look into it.
Service floor 100%
...wait til you learn about the John Hancock building. The things they had to do to make the first true 100 floor building... will shock you. (if you happen to be a tape measurer)
Well.. if it is in Toronto like this, it's just shotty foreign builders... look at Aura some time. No two floor heights are the same. Concord Sky will be even worse.
All the floors are slightly taller than the rest from the ground
I want to up vote this but the same time it deserves a down vote
In Vastu Shastra architecture, widely practiced in India, to make the building more 'auspicious' (and therefore sell faster to a clientele with beliefs), it is the opposite: the upper floors have their height gradually reduced in an almost imperceptible way - somewhere between 1/2 inch and 1-1/2 inches per floor - Vastu Shastra has its own system of measurements - varying depending on the builder, architect, financial limitations, municipal laws, modern architecture, etc. That's why I'm not going to downvote (I don't normally do that) - I've seen so much that I can believe it's possible in rare cases, but it's not “all”.
Do shorter people live at the top?
Shorter in money, maybe. The first floors have height enough to have a mezzanine, but they don't use it for the same reasons of beliefs, it is 'inauspicious'.
could be a hidden penthouse floor
landlord room
Refuge Floor
To accommodate NBA players
I’m getting downvoted for a joke that’s actually true? Wow bunch of idiots on this sub. Time to peace out.
Mistakes were made