I realize the engineering to build a "spiral escalator," or really just an escalator that curves instead of going straight, can't be too much more difficult than the engineering to build a normal one. But that begs the question, if it's not that tough, why don't we see more of them?These curved escalators are in the Westfield San Francisco Centre, the upscale downtown mall that opened last fall. I've been literally watching the construction for years, so it's nice to see it finished!
I stumbled upon the mall while out shopping for a nice shirt to wear to dinner the other night. I'd looked in the Old Navy on Market Street, after being too scared to get much farther into Bloomingdale's, and the greeter at Old Navy suggested I look upstairs at Express. I hadn't realized the Old Navy was part of a mall, since it has a storefront that I'd walked past dozens of times. Happily, Express had a father's day sale going, making the shirt more-or-less reasonably priced instead of something I'd never buy for myself in a million years.
I told Leah (fun Calgaryite I've been hanging out with) about the curved escalators, and she insisted on seeing for herself, so we went back and browsed through the mall for a bit last night between the conference and the Facebook developer party we were going to. More about that later.
