Despite Expired Permits, Harvard’s Elevators Are In Compliance

For Harvard’s elevators, there are a lot of ups and downs.

Elevators in 15 buildings of 18 The Crimson surveyed around Harvard Yard showcase expired permits. The dates vary based on the elevator—a handful expired last spring, in April or May 2016. But for others, the expiration date stretches farther back. The permit for Thayer Hall's elevator expired in December 2013.

Despite the slew of expired permits, University spokesperson David J. Cameron wrote in an email that “Harvard University is 100 percent compliant in submitting applications for elevator inspections to the State of Massachusetts within sixty to ninety days before inspection is due.”

The Department of Public Safety receives applications for elevator inspections in Massachusetts. Felix Browne, the communications director of that department, said that “sometimes elevators are in compliance but the new certificate has not been posted.”

“When an elevator is inspected for annual compliance, the results are electronically sent to both Otis Elevator Company and to the project manager of elevator services at Harvard’s Engineering and Utilities department, where the information is filed for documentation,” Cameron said. “An electronic version of the certification card is included provided an elevator has passed inspection.”

Maureen McCarthy, the manager of Harvard Yard and freshmen dorms, said up-to-date copies of the permits are in located the elevator services project manager’s office, which would make the elevators in compliance despite expired permits seen inside the elevators.

Many of the elevators have in fact been recently inspected, but do not show updated permits. Thayer and Weld, both under McCarthy’s purview, were inspected this September—both buildings, however, have expired elevator permits.

McCarthy pointed to a combination of “backlogs” in the Public Safety Department and a delay on the part of Harvard and its elevator service company, Otis Elevator, as reason for these discrepancies.

According to Browne, “There are four elevators at Harvard awaiting inspection but since the owner scheduled the inspection prior to the expiration of the certificate the elevators are in compliance.” He confirmed that all elevators at Harvard are “currently in compliance.”

Elevators that show expired permits are in Quincy, Leverett, Dunster, Currier, and Pforzheimer Houses, as well as Thayer, Greenough, and Weld halls. Of the academic buildings surveyed by The Crimson, Sever, Emerson, Lamont, and the Biology Labs also have expired elevator permits. The overflow housing at 20 DeWolfe St. does, too.

Still other elevator qualms have affected students; just this semester, several students were trapped in elevators during blackouts earlier this semester. Milo A. Davidson ’19 was in the Mather low-rise elevator during a blackout when he and his bandmates were trapped for over 30 minutes.

They eventually got out after calling the emergency number in the elevator.

In Pforzheimer House, the elevator to the Bell Tower suite has a sign suggesting that students consider taking the stairs during times of “high volume,” cautioning that the “elevator breaks with heavy use.”

Pforzheimer House Building Manager Mario E. Leon said the “safety measure” was taken after “a pattern” of the elevator breaking on the weekends.

—Staff writer Julia E. DeBenedictis can be reached at julia.debenedictis@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @julia_debene.