# Is it stupid how buildings have no 13th floor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 1, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471 "2003-07-01T00:59:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471/41 "2003-07-02T18:17:13Z")
I used to have an office on the 13th floor of the famous University of Texas (aka Charles Whitman Memorial) Tower. Most office buildings I’ve been in have 13th floors, and nobody thinks twice. It’s only in the occasional high rise hotel or apartment building that I’ve encountered the “missing 13th floor” phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471/42 "2003-07-02T19:27:02Z")
We had an office next to LAX that we just moved out of since we only used it for training and left it unoccupied otherwise. Our office was on the “15th” floor, but it was technically on the 14th, since the building has no 13th floor. Yes students (engineers) and I would laugh at this. The building looked as if had been constructed during the 70s, perhaps 80s, based on its architecture (plain, glass hexahedral). I’ve encountered numerous other buildings during my lifetime that went directly from the 12th to the 14th floor, although I don’t remember exact addresses. They were probably mostly around Atlanta since that’s where I grew up. As I kid, I found this stupid as well. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471/43 "2003-07-02T22:26:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tjblack \* > \*\*I live in apartment 112. My neighbor is 114… \*\* Same thing here. But on the bright side, for a time my office was located in a 20-story building, and we did have a 13th floor. I also thought the whole thing with Friday the thirteenth being unlucky was amusing. It’s pretty hard to feel bad on a Friday. And if your salary comes on the 15th and last day of the month, you always get paid on Friday the thirteenth. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471/44 "2003-07-02T23:13:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tdn \* > \*\*[http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/friday\_the\_13th\_origins.html](http://www.urbanlegends.com/misc/friday_the_13th_origins.html) \*\* I didn’t say it was logical. I just said it was. ---
**Author:** ![Stage\_Manager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stage_manager/32/7267_2.png) [@Stage\_Manager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stage_Manager)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471/45 "2003-07-03T05:38:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Neurotik \* > \*\*Ah. Perhaps then. Buildings constructed around the turn of the century (20th) sometimes had no thirteenth floor due to superstition. But that fell by the wayside in the US, for the most part, by the time of heaviest skyscraper construction. \*\* I recently stayed the weekend at a hotel in Woodland Hills, California, built in 1989. It did not have a floor numbered 13. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471/46 "2003-07-03T09:32:33Z")
Fools! There is a 13th floor, but the elevator _doesn’t stop there_. Where else are the top secret military going to do their adminstration? _Someone’s_ got to do all the filing for those black helicopters and contacts with aliens. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-stupid-how-buildings-have-no-13th-floor/185471.md?page=2)