DJ 202-PL-882

DEC 20, 1994

Mr. Daniel Harkins
Thermal Design, Inc.
P.O. Box 324
Stoughton, Wisconsin 53589

Dear Mr. Harkins:

This is in response to your letter regarding the

requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
for newly constructed buildings.

The ADA authorizes the Department of Justice to provide

technical assistance to individuals and entities that have rights
or responsibilities under the Act. Pursuant to that authority,
this letter provides informal guidance to assist you in
understanding the ADA. However, this technical assistance does
not constitute a legal interpretation of the statute, and it is
not binding on the Department.

Your letter asks whether the ADA requires installation of an

elevator in a planned office building. According to your letter,
the planned building would contain three floors containing
approximately 5,000 square feet per floor. There would be
exterior accessible entrances to the bottom and middle floors.
There would be an interior stairway between the middle and top
floors. There would be no interior route between the bottom and
middle floors. Rather, to get from one floor to the other, a
person must exit the building and drive or walk around the
exterior of the building to the entrance to the other floor.

The Department of Justice's regulation implementing title

III of the ADA requires covered entities to comply with the ADA
Standards for Accessible Design (Standards). Section 4.1.3(5) of
the Standards requires one accessible passenger elevator to be
provided in all "multi-story" buildings unless they fall within
the elevator exception. The elevator exception exempts most
buildings with less than three stories. Your letter asks
whether, because of the lack of an interior route between
stories, your proposed building can be treated as two separate
buildings; one having two stories and falling within the elevator
exception and the other having only one story and not required to
include an elevator.
cc: Records, Chrono, Wodatch, Blizard, Hill, FOIA, Friedlander
n:\udd\hille\policylt\harkins.ltr\young-parran

01-03551​
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Because your proposed office building is a single structure,
it must be treated as a single "building" within the ADA
definition. That proposed building will include three stories,
as defined by the ADA. The ADA's elevator requirement for new
construction does not depend on whether an interior route between
stories is otherwise planned.

I hope this information is helpful to you and fully responds

to your inquiry.
Sincerely,

John L. Wodatch
Chief
Public Access Section
01-03552