All the doors in Paley– particularly the ones in the stairwell and the elevator lobbies– need to have the handles changed to vertical ones on the side that say “Pull.” The standard is vertical for pull, horizontal for push. That way, you end endless minor embarrassment for people pushing on pull doors. It is a simple and considerate thing to do– not the cheap and lazy set-up you have now. You could use the current handles or invest a little in handles that visually command pulling.
We can’t argue with you on this one. What you point out is a basic design feature of most buildings (are you an architecture student?). In fact some design sites suggest that any door that requires a push should have no handle at all, but simply a plate where the hand is placed for the push. We don’t know what they were thinking when they installed the doors back in the sixties.
Now, what can we do about this? We will pass your observation on to our facilities manager to see what’s involved in a changeover of this sort. Chances are it will not be cheap or simple to do, and in that case we must ask ourselves if it is the best use of students’ tuition dollars. And we have to keep in mind that over the last 40 or so years, with thousands upon thousands of people going in and out of Paley, this particular problem has hardly ever been pointed out to us.
I will point out that when you come to the first stairwell door opposite the Ask Here Desk – we got that one right!
The door handles on the second floor leading to and from the elevators on the east side are a much better example of getting it right. These newer handles are larger and have plenty of clearance from the door. The old handles like the ones on the first floor staircase are too close to the door for pulling without getting your fingers pinched, say, when pulling on one door while someone is pushing on the other. They aren’t really meant for pulling on at all.
We obtained from Temple Facilities an estimate that was surprisingly high – over $4,000 – to replace all the door pulls. Nonetheless we are proceeding (July 2009) to replace all with pulls of an appropriate size, hand clearance as noted by Mr. Lezenby, and in the correct orientation.