Elevator 2.5

The RSNA is holding its annual meeting at McCormick Place: a multiplex of huge and bizarrely-lit barn-like structures.

Radiologists work all day in the dark, and often commute both ways in the dark this half of the year. We therefore tend to be a bit pallid as a group. This natural pallor is not improved by the odd, not-found-in-nature spectrum of the overhead lights here.

After spending the morning wandering through crowds of corpse-hued radiologists, a lunch-time elevator ride added briefly to my sense of unreality. I did a double-take while punching in my destination, and pulled out my iPhone for the following picture:


Google led me to a floor plan of level 2.5, but so far, not to any explanation of how it got numbered thusly.  If McCormick Place were built by Microsoft, I'd conclude that the level has been out of beta for a few years now, and is now finally safe enough for general use.  Even so, most experienced users would wait a few floors and get off on level 5.0. 

Whatever the reason, I suppose we can be grateful that at least they named it using the metric system. History suggests that it could have been a lot worse...