A sky lobby is an intermediate interchange floor in a skyscraper where people can change from an express elevator that stops only at the sky lobby to a local elevator that stops at a subset of higher floors.

Early uses of the sky lobby include the original Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and 875 North Michigan Avenue (John Hancock Center) in Chicago.

World Trade Center (Manhattan) The Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center were among the first buildings to utilize sky lobbies. The 110-story towers had sky lobbies on the 44th and 78th floors, from which four banks of local elevators provided access to other floors, a design inspired by the New York City Subway. The inclusion of sky lobbies resulted in more usable office space on each floor while also rendering construction beyond the 80th floor economically feasible.

Nearly 200 people were estimated to have been in the 78th floor sky lobby of the South Tower of the original World Trade Center when it was hit directly by United Airlines Flight 175, leaving only around a dozen who survived the impact and escaped the tower before it collapsed.

The present-day One World Trade Center is the tallest skyscraper in New York City. Like the buildings it replaced, the new building has a sky lobby to reduce the amount of space devoted to elevators. The sky lobby is on the 64th floor; each set of five to six stories is served by a separate bank of elevators. The elevators to the sky lobby, along with the ones used for the nonstop service to the 100th-floor One World Observatory, are the fastest in the Western Hemisphere. The observatory elevator transports passengers 100 floors in under one minute.

875 North Michigan Avenue (Chicago) The John Hancock Center's sky lobby on the 44th floor serves only the residential portion of the building that occupies 48 floors (floors 45–92). Three express elevators run from the residential lobby on the ground floor to the 44th floor, with all three of the elevators stopping at one of the parking garage levels. At floor 44, residents transfer to two banks of three elevators. One bank serves 21 floors (floors 45–65) and the other serves 28 floors (floors 65–92). Although all six elevators stop at floor 65, this floor is roughly the same layout as the residential floors immediately above and below it. It is not a sky lobby because residents can also board elevators to higher floors at floor 44.

The tower's 44th floor sky lobby includes a pool, gym, dry cleaner, convenience store, about 700 mailboxes, two "party" rooms, a sitting area overlooking Lake Michigan, a small library, a refuse room (with trash chutes emptying here), offices for the managers of the residential condominium, and a polling station for residents during elections.

Floors above 92 are serviced by direct passenger elevators from the ground floor, and by two freight elevators that serve 55 floors (floors 44 to 98).

Buildings with sky lobbies

Building Name Year Location Floors of sky lobby(s) 875 North Michigan Avenue 1969 Chicago, Illinois, United States 44 30 Hudson Yards 2019 New York City, New York, United States 35 1 World Trade Center (1971–2001) 1972 New York City, New York, United States 44, 78 2 World Trade Center (1971–2001) 1973 New York City, New York, United States 44, 78 Willis Tower 1973 Chicago, Illinois, United States 33/34, 66/67 NatWest Tower 1980 London, United Kingdom 23/24 JPMorgan Chase Tower (Houston) 1982 Houston, Texas, United States 60 Wells Fargo Plaza (Houston) 1983 Houston, Texas, United States 34/35, 58/59 Williams Tower 1983 Houston, Texas, United States 51 Columbia Center 1985 Seattle, Washington, United States 40 Miami Tower 1987 Miami, Florida, United States 11 Seattle Municipal Tower 1990 Seattle, Washington, United States 40 Petronas Twin Towers 1999 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 41/42 Izumi Garden Tower 2002 Tokyo, Japan – First World Hotel 2008 Genting Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia 3, 8 Taipei 101 2004 Taipei, Taiwan 35/36, 59/60 Shin Kong Life Tower 1993 Taipei, Taiwan 16 Revenue Tower 1990 Wan Chai North, Hong Kong 38 Immigration Tower 1990 Wan Chai North, Hong Kong 38 Central Plaza 1992 Wan Chai North, Hong Kong 46 The Center 1998 Central, Hong Kong 42 Two International Finance Centre 2003 Central, Hong Kong 33, 35, 55, 56 Bloomberg Tower 2004 New York City, New York, United States 6, 20 Nina Tower 2006 Tsuen Wan, New Territories, Hong Kong 41 One Island East 2005 Quarry Bay, Hong Kong 36, 37 The Bow 2007 Calgary, Alberta, Canada 18, 36, 58 Shanghai World Financial Center 2008 Shanghai, China 28/29, 52/53 Burj Khalifa 2010 Dubai, United Arab Emirates 43, 76, 123 200 West Street 2009 New York City, New York, United States 11 International Commerce Centre 2010 West Kowloon, Hong Kong 48/49, 88, 98/99 Jeddah Tower 2020 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia 42/43, 75/76, 125/126 One World Trade Center (2014-) 2014 New York City, New York, United States 64 Rosslyn Central Place Office Tower 2016 Arlington, Virginia, United States 6 Lakhta Center 2018 Saint Petersburg, Russia 29/30, 53/54 Australia 108 2019 Melbourne, Australia 83, 84 Wilshire Grand Tower 2017 Los Angeles, California, United States 70 Shanghai Tower 2015 Shanghai, China 22/23, 37/38, 52/53, 68/69, 101 Wuhan Greenland Center 2018 Wuhan, China 25/26, 49/50, 70, 116/117 Tokyo Sky Tree 2012 Sumida, Tokyo, Japan 4F, 350m Abeno Harukas 2014 Osaka, Japan 17/18, 19/20 Wisma 46 1996 Jakarta, Indonesia 46 Merdeka 118 2021 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 40/41, 75/76 UOB Plaza Tower One 1995 Singapore, Singapore 37–38 S2 Building EEPIS 2015 Surabaya, Indonesia 1This is not a ground floor, and in other building on EEPIS complex, this floor is known as 2nd floor. Abraj Al-Bait Clock Tower 2012 Makkah, Saudi Arabia M2,Used as the hotel lobby M4Used as the serviced apartments lobby Plaza Tunjungan 5 2015 Surabaya, Indonesia 20 311 South Wacker Drive 1990 Chicago, Illinois, United States 46 Lurie Children's Hospital 2012 Chicago, Illinois, United States 11Djamaa el Djazaïr2019Algiers, Algeria4

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