[ http://ask.yahoo.com/20070207.html ]



While some high-rises skip the allegedly unlucky floor, many buildings aren't so superstitious.

The Empire State Building, one of the most famous buildings in the world, has a 13th floor. And, according to its official site, the whole thing is available to lease.

This article from USA Today explains that Fairmont hotels in Acapulco, Quebec City, and Vancouver don't have a 13th floor. Interestingly, Fairmont hotels in other cities do. The article goes on to mention that decisions regarding whether or not a building has a 13th floor usually rest with the building contractor.

The photo-sharing site Flickr offers a few photos of elevators without a button for the 13th floor. However, the site also has plenty of pictures of elevators with a 13th floor button.

We don't have all the figures, but we suspect that more buildings have a 13th floor than don't. Why? Because not all cultures consider the number 13 to be unlucky. Wikipedia, a great resource but one to be taken with a grain of salt, mentions that "new buildings in some parts of China omit the fourth, fourteenth, twenty-fourth, etc. floors, as the word 'four' sounds like "death" in Mandarin." Spoooooky.

Tags: news