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When the American Medical Association moved its headquarters to a famous Chicago skyscraper (tòa nhà chọc trời) in 2013, the floor-to-ceiling views from the 47th-floor conference space (không gian hội thảo) were a spectacular (ngoạn mục) selling point (điểm bán).

But now, those glimpses (cái nhìn thoáng qua, ý niệm lờ mờ) of the Chicago River at the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed landmark, now known as AMA Plaza, come with a trade-off: navigating the elevator in the time of COVID-19.

Once the epitome (hình ảnh thu nhỏ, ví dụ hoàn hảo) of efficiency for moving masses of people quickly to where they needed to go, the elevator is the antithesis (phép đối chọi, phản đề, tương phản) of social distancing (giãn cách xã hội) and a risk-multiplying bottleneck (điểm nghẽn). As America begins to open up, the newest conundrum (câu đố, câu hỏi hóc búa) for employers in cities is how to safely transport people in elevators and manage the crowd of people waiting for them.

If office tower workers want to stay safe, elevator experts think they have advice, some practical, some not: Stay in your corner (đứng trong góc), face the walls (quay mặt vào tường) and carry toothpicks (for pushing the buttons; dùng bàn chải đánh răng bấm thang máy). Not only have those experts gone back to studying mathematical models for moving people, but they are also creating technology like ultraviolet-light disinfection (tẩy uế) tools and voice-activated panels.

Bài trước: Cố làm gì