Elevator & Basement help?

[Widonja]

I'm doing a pretty different club idea for the building challenge 'A place to perform'. I had a little fun with the terrain tool and constructed a hill - a cliff if you will, that leads to a little room. From there, I was planning to have an elevator to go down to a basement, that would be placed below the hill. I wasn't really skilled with the elevator before, so I never used the shaft... I figured out that I had to create numerous sub-basements, just to place shafts...

Now, I got a problem. You see, my elevator is placed in a corner, so i have to create a 2x2 square around it (2 are already the wall of the building, the other 2 I create...) But the shaft just doesn't want to fit in the corner.  I always have to create a 3x3 square around it, and the elevator doesn't fit perfectly above or below the shaft. Does it have to? Do you have any ideas how to do this? Also, there is a foundation between the 1st floor and the basement... will this affect the shafts?


The Cliff


Here's the top floor with the elevators


Here's the base floor. I figured it out on this floor but on the basements, it's still not working... Just for the cause to see, what I'm talking about, I'll post a picture:


Here it is. Shaft's are always placed like this...

Anyway, below that level, there's a foundation:

so, there are no elevators here... Here I created one sub-basement already:


So, how do I place the shafts here? I'd continue this till the elevator reaches the big basement that you can see below.

So to recap:
Will this even be possible?
How can I build the elevators?
Will it be possible on a foundation, or does it block the elevators?
How to fit the shafts on a 2x2 spot?


Thanks for reading, and I hope I can get help, as the contest ends today! First to answer gets a cookie!

[Twinmum]

Are you trying to build the elevator down through the actual ground or the foundation. How deep is the foundation, is it taller than a normal floor level? Elevator shafts have to be on top of each other, you can't have a gap of just dirt between them (if that's what you are trying to do) Each level has to be directly under the one above.
As for building through foundations (of friezes) it can be done, but the atheistic quality leaves a lot to be desired. Have you checked out the
stair and elevator tutorial here? It covers the basics of elevators including going through a foundation/frieze.
The elevator won't go in your corner because of the window behind it. Remove that and you should be able to place it in the corner.