No, it's not a new running drill to add to your high-knee lifts and long strides. Here's a new approach to creating a healthy work and learning environment: midrise office buildings without elevators--or more accurately, without elevators that stop on every floor. At the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (a Lower Manhattan private college), a new academic building slated to open in January 2009 will introduce students, faculty and visitors, to "skip-stop" elevators.
Though the building will offer classrooms and offices among 9 storys, its elevator will "skip" most floors and "stop" on only the 5th and 8th levels. Guess why? Yep, to not so gently compel an impromptu stair workout--I love it! But something tells me that coeds with classes on the 3rd floor will "skip" the WALK up and instead opt for a ride to 5, and an easier walk down.
I think an additional component will be user-friendly stairwells. One of my office buildings has an ancient elevator and our office is on the 8th floor. I'd happily take the stairs except they are dark, cramped, and the building has several psychiatric offices including one for severe mental illness. The patients sometimes hang out in the stairwells. This makes it such that I'd never take the stairs unless accompanied by someone or in case of emergency. And this too is a academic building at a major university.
However, I love the idea of this elevator! I think it's a step in the right direction!