It's a fairly large building, the basement extends under the entire surface footprint, and the bulk of it belongs to the central store -- which, since the 1960s, has been the smoke shop.
In addition to our storage rooms, the gear shop has a room that runs along the east side of the building from the staircase all the way to the front (south) wall. Along the western wall (and down a couple steps) is the boiler room, with the furnance and so on. The room in the back northwest corner is condemned and boarded up; I have no idea what it was ever used for. The elevator shaft sits at the rear (north) side of the building and was intended to carry deliveries from the alley to the basement. The lift part itself has not worked for decades and may or may not have ever been electrified -- like I said, it's an old building! -- but we still use the shaft and the platform to chuck down coffee deliveries rather than carry the boxes down the narrow stairs two or three (30 or 45lb) at a time.
We actually drain our air conditioner directly into the elevator shaft via a workaround of garden hoses and duct tape... or at least we have done for the past three years. This year the temporary fix seems to have worked better and the AC is gamely struggling along without overt problems. (We really need a new air conditioner, but our owner and the previous landlord could never agree whose financial responsibility that ought to be so nothing ever happened. We have hopes now, with the new landlords, but thus far no solid proposals have emerged.)
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Date: 2013-07-30 02:38 am (UTC)In addition to our storage rooms, the gear shop has a room that runs along the east side of the building from the staircase all the way to the front (south) wall. Along the western wall (and down a couple steps) is the boiler room, with the furnance and so on. The room in the back northwest corner is condemned and boarded up; I have no idea what it was ever used for. The elevator shaft sits at the rear (north) side of the building and was intended to carry deliveries from the alley to the basement. The lift part itself has not worked for decades and may or may not have ever been electrified -- like I said, it's an old building! -- but we still use the shaft and the platform to chuck down coffee deliveries rather than carry the boxes down the narrow stairs two or three (30 or 45lb) at a time.
We actually drain our air conditioner directly into the elevator shaft via a workaround of garden hoses and duct tape... or at least we have done for the past three years. This year the temporary fix seems to have worked better and the AC is gamely struggling along without overt problems. (We really need a new air conditioner, but our owner and the previous landlord could never agree whose financial responsibility that ought to be so nothing ever happened. We have hopes now, with the new landlords, but thus far no solid proposals have emerged.)