[waterfowl]

Are these that unusual/dated? I read the article and couldn't tell if these are distinct from mail chutes in general. Both my home and office buildings in DC have them and they're neither very like, historic grand buildings.

Pretty sure the house and senate office buildings also both contain these.

[supertrope]

Contemporary fire code considers laundry and mail chutes weak points for a fire spreading between floors. First class mail volume peaked in 2001. https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/first-class...

[wahern]

I work in a 10-story building built in the 1890s, one of the first "skyscrapers" in San Francisco. The mail chute system is blocked, and the beautiful iron staircases have been boxed in at every level with fire resistant doors and walls. AFAIU, in both cases one of the primary reasons was fire safety, according to the leasing agent.

However, I know of at least one other building in this area, the Hobart Building, slightly younger but much taller, where the iron staircases are still open and still serve their aesthetic function. It makes taking the stairs so much more pleasant.

Apparently the fire risk is manageable. I think a bigger problem is that these building were designed for a multitude of small office suites. But today most of these buildings will have (or want to have) tenants who wish to lease entire floors, or most of a floor. Large, open, but single tenant floor spaces are how most modern office towers are constructed, so that's the market expectation.[1] It's difficult to provide such tenant spaces while also keeping open corridors between floors. Even for mail chutes, as the private, controlled-access floors diminish the desirability and utility of shared facilities.

[1] The nearby Crown Zellerbach Building (1959, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Bush_Plaza) was at the vanguard of this office tower design evolution.

[xxpor]

It's interesting it peaked in 2001 concidering a large part of NJ's mail system was essentially shut down for a few weeks. Not that NJ is that big, but it's big enough that I'd expect it to cause a 1-2% hit overall.

[wsh]

Mail chutes were a common feature of buildings for many years, and not only in New York City.

The sixth (1970) and seventh (1981) editions of Architectural Graphic Standards discuss them on the “Planning for Postal Service in Office Buildings” pages. From the latter:

  CHUTES: Used in buildings of at least four stories.
  The chute must be approximately 2 x 8 in. in cross
  section and extend in a continuously vertical line
  from the beginning point to the receiving box or
  mailroom. The interior of the chute must be access-
  ible throughout its entire length. Chutes installed
  in pairs are constructed with a divider and dual
  receiving boxes. Chutes are for first class mail only.