elevator stack

[blwings]

So when the word spread that Lila Mae had been assigned the 18-deep elevator stack in the Fanny Briggs Memorial Building (18-deep!), a career-making case for any inspector, few were surprised and whatever ground Chancre lost among the Old Dogs of the Guild was more than compensated for by the goodwill generated by the raise and the new mother-of-pearl jackknife screwdrivers.

This is from The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead. I wonder what is an elevator stack here. Maybe an elevator shaft?

 

[Tdol]

She was in charge of inspecting these elevators- I guess there were 18, so 18 shafts.

 

[probus]

I think it's more likely a synonym for elevator shaft as the OP conjectured. Our property manager refers to the identical apartments in our building as stacks. For example, we live in apartment 501, the flat on the fifth floor in the oh-one stack. The floorplan is the same as 201, 301, etc