However this was not always the case. Imagine yourself standing on the muddy streets of Toronto just over a hundred years ago. The Royal York Hotel was starting to rise a tremendous 34 storeys into the sky, taller than any other building in the British Empire dwarfing all other 3-4 storey buildings in its vicinity. Torontonian's at the time were fascinated by the wonders of the elevator and lined up for an opportunity to ride this invention. With Toronto's ongoing condo boom, the average Torontonian takes 4 daily elevator trips with many taking significantly more. Over this time the excitement around elevators and their design has fallen to wayside, fading into the background of life just like other architectural advances like heating, ventilation, plumbing and electricity. Elevators have become so indistinguishable from any other element of the building we often take for granted the technology behind elevators. It's difficult to imagine when most Canadian's would never go higher than a storey or two off the ground in their lifetime.



Arriving at the Fairmont Royal York, Josh introduces the building as "A City Within a City Block". At 28 floors, the hotel was the tallest building in the British Empire until the completion of Commerce Court North. At an incredible 34 stories, the tower would remain the tallest building in the British Empire until 1962.