I’ve been inside the West Building a bunch of times, but I never noticed this until the other day. If you’re in front of the elevator in the lobby, the sign above the door reads Floors 1 through 8. But the building only has four floors plus the basement. Where did Floors 5, 6, 7 and 8 go? Or are they there but we just don’t know it? – Missing Something
Action Line conducted some exhaustive in-depth research, which consisted of walking a block over to the blue-hued West Building.
Sure enough, the elevator sign displays eight floors. But once inside the elevator, the highest you can go is Floor 4.
This elevator situation should push every conspiracy button out there.
Could the top half of the building be operating in Stealth Mode all these years?
The fact that high-ranking elected officials rent West Building office space proves the point.
U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton currently has his field office there. So does U.S. Sen. Michael Bennett.
Why would our federal leaders be roomies unless they need convenient but invisible tactical facilities to further the United Nations’ Agenda 21 plot for taking over rural La Plata County?
No doubt the West Building’s invisible floors feature a Cone of Silence and several rooftop landing pads for black helicopters.
The cloaked space will also provide secure storage for the massing number of firearms President Obama will confiscate prior to leaving office.
Now that this nefarious scheme has been exposed, we risk a backlash.
Such skullduggery might prompt a visit from the Bundy clan and its sad-sack posse of gun-totting, gubamint-loathing Mercuns whipped into a paranoid paroxysm.
But that’s not likely. The Bundys and their ilk are busy occupying another government facility, albeit involuntarily.
They’re chilling in the hoosegow, their bail denied, thus depriving the pusillanimous patriots of an early spring camp-out on the West Building’s mysterious skyscraping floors to protest tyrannies that don’t exist at offices that aren’t there.
But let’s get back to reality. The West Building has a fascinating background.
For details, Action Line took the stairs to the second floor, where our good friends Frank J. and Nick Anesi have their law offices.
Frank is part of a joint venture that owns the iconic downtown structure, and Nick, his son, was available for a history briefing.
The West Building was constructed in 1959 by James and Ward West, two brothers who were experienced developers. James was from Wichita, Kansas, and Ward hailed from Midland, Texas.
The brothers liked to hunt and fish at the Vallecito area and saw the opportunity for energy development in the Durango area.
So the Wards met with oil and gas companies to prelease office space in Durango’s first modern building.
“The building was approved for eight stories,” Nick said. “But halfway through the project, it became clear the energy sector was headed for a major slump.”
Hmmm. A bust in the San Juan oil patch. Sound familiar?
Anyway, Nick said that crews were just about to start work on the fifth floor, but the Wards said enough.
The building was capped and finished at four stories, the height at which the West Building stands today.
But the elevator console in the first-floor lobby was already installed, showing eight floors as per the original plan, Nick said with a chuckle.
You might say that’s the building’s “storied” past, thus concluding the Case of the Phantom Floors. However, it’s the start of something bigger.
The West Building elevator has become the ideal metaphor for our quirky town.
Not only do we have an Otis to Nowhere to complement our bridge, but we can all proudly state that Durango is a place where “the elevator doesn’t serve all floors.”
How perfect is that?
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you can explain why anyone who gets on an elevator turns around to the front and pretends no one else is there.
