![With Recent Innovations, Where Will Elevators Take Us Next? - Featured Image](https://snoopy.archdaily.com/images/archdaily/media/images/5747/51f2/e58e/ce97/1000/000a/slideshow/BeFunky_Collage.jpg?1464291810&format=webp&width=640&height=580)
Many technological advancements have changed the way we design in the past 150 years, but perhaps none has had a greater impact than the invention of the passenger elevator. Prior to Elisha Otis’ design for the elevator safety brake in 1853, buildings rarely reached 7 stories. Since then, buildings have only been growing taller and taller. In 2009, the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, maxed out at 163 floors (serviced by Otis elevators). Though a century and half separates those milestones, in that time elevator technology has actually changed relatively little - until recently.