The Schindler 3300 currently reigns as Schindler’s best-selling product around the world, serving the low-rise market. Also doing well, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the Schindler 7000 series targets the high-rise market. But, among Schindler’s global offerings, customers called for a solution both flexible and global in scope to bridge the gap. The new Schindler 5500 provides the answer, able to serve the mid-rise, mixed-use market that is becoming more prevalent, especially in developing countries.

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by Christopher Rosario

79 5th Avenue is a landmark building in one of the most well-established business districts of New York City. Constructed in 1907 by architect Albert S. Gottlieb, the building is located near Greenwich Village, between the Financial District and Midtown Manhattan.

Fusing Muntz (a form of brass that contains copper and zinc), Sapele wood veneer, stone and Charleston bonded bronze, United Elevator Cabs, Inc. of Jamaica, New York, modernized the building’s outdated elevator cabs, which compliment both its exterior and pre-World War II lobby.

The lighting consists of four low-voltage LED recessed down lights, six halogen Dichroic lamps and 3-W MR16 high-power LEDs. Three wall panels were installed in a style-and-rail design, with the styles and rails made of the aforementioned bronze in a forms-and-surfaces pattern. The field consists of the Sapele wood veneer, which was stained and lacquered. The panels are held in place with aluminum Z-clips. A new floor was also installed. One-quarter-in. stone, backed with lightweight aluminum honeycomb, was used. It was laid in an “Elev-opt4” design, with two borders laid in diamond design.

See more photos of the modernization project in this month’s Online Extras.

Christopher Rosario is Marketing director for United Elevator Cabs, Inc. He has worked at the company since 2011, after graduating from the Baruch College at City University of New York with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing.

Originally built as a three-story open-air structure in 1961, Scottsdale Fashion Square has undergone many expansions and modernizations. This past year, the mall opted to add a new glass elevator and hoistway at its center, Palm Court, to better accommodate patrons. The unit has a stainless-steel base that extends along the bottom of the cab and is 6 in. high to accommodate vent slots. A three-story, all-glass shaft houses the custom cab and all the elevator’s operational mechanisms.

Working with KONE, Eklund’s Inc. completed a custom glass observation elevator for Scottsdale Fashion Square. At the top of the elevator, a six-panel ceiling constructed of 4-ga. stainless steel contains six LED down lights. The cab’s transparent side and rear walls are full length, 9/16-in. thick, clear, low-iron laminated glass held in place at the top, bottom and corners of the cab’s frame by extruded aluminum channels. Mounted through the glass walls, a stainless-steel handrail runs continuously along the rear and side walls of the cab, bending smoothly at the corner intersections.

by Kevin Brass, Dr. Antony Wood and Marty Carver

For the first time in six years, the number of tall buildings completed annually around the world declined in 2012, as the consequential effects of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis became evident in tall-building construction in many Western countries. Sixty-six buildings taller than 200 m were completed during 2012 — the third most in history, but down from the 82 finished in 2011. This number of completions was slightly lower than expected, with some projects under construction delayed or stalled. However, several of the projects forecast to finish in 2012 are now expected to be complete in 2013 and 2014, with global completion numbers expected to rise again next year.

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by M.J. Mohamed Iqbal and Mitsuya Amano

Tokyo Sky Tree is the tallest structure in Japan and among the tallest in the world, topping out at 634 m. Led by Tobu Railway and a group of six terrestrial broadcasters headed by NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.), the tower forms the centerpiece of a large commercial development. One of its main purposes is to relay television and radio broadcast signals, as the city’s current facility, Tokyo Tower, with a height of 333 m, no longer gives complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting coverage, because it is surrounded by several high-rise buildings. Tokyo Sky Tree is located in Sky Town, a commercial complex combining the broadcast tower, an aquarium, a planetarium and the Tokyo Solamachi complex, which boasts 312 shops and restaurants. The tower is located near the Asakusa district known for its old streets and Sensoji Temple.

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The elevator installation at the Fort Myers Beach Public Library in Florida was carried out by Taylor Elevator Corp. between September 2011 and August 2012. The project did not involve overcoming any major engineering feats, include any futuristic electronics, set any records or do anything that has not been done before with an in-ground hydraulic elevator. However, Taylor Elevator did install a not so run of the mill four-stop front and rear, cornerpost-design elevator with center-opening glass doors and a 9000-lb.-capacity glass observation cab.

In today’s economy, the bottom dollar drives most sales. It is nice to know there are still building owners/directors such as Dr. Leroy Hommerding of the Fort Myers Public Library and project-management companies like Manhattan Kraft Construction that realize you get what you pay for. Taylor Elevator, located in nearby Naples, Florida, is proud to have carved that niche into our local market.

Elevator Installation

The hole for the piston was drilled in September 2011 by United Drilling. During the almost year it took to complete the project, Taylor Elevator teamed with Minnesota Elevator Inc. to design and build a glass observation cab. The two side walls of the elevator are constructed mainly out of 9/16-in. laminated glass, the car and hall doors are center opening with laminated- glass panel inserts, and what is not glass is stainless. With almost four floors to fill with books, the library needed a high-capacity elevator. The elevator is powered by tandem 40-hp motors that can push a 7-1/2-in. piston at 110 fpm. To carry this kind of load, the pit channels, which spanned 9 ft. in length, were increased from 8 to 12 in. To control the electronics, Vertitron Midwest, Inc., a sister company of Minnesota Elevator, installed a controller with two seven-day time clocks; one monitors the second and third floors, and the other monitors the fourth floor, allowing the library to have preset  public-access times for individual floors.

The conceptual design was an elevator enclosed by a hoistway almost completely constructed of glass. Instead of floor-to- ceiling glass panels at each level, the architects at Harvard Jolly Architecture, along with the engineers at Consulting Engineering Associates, Inc. designed glass inserts that look like portholes or bubbles going up the entire side walls of the hoistway. Putting the portholes to use, they brought in J.D. Burdge, a local artist, to paint an underwater theme. So, elevator passengers are brought face to face with images of underwater creatures. Furthermore, the engineers at KBA Engineering, Inc. designed LEDs on the car top and platform that change a multitude of colors as the elevator was in transit. Tri-City Electrical Contractors, Inc. added some of the finishing touches by transforming what already seemed to be aesthetically pleasing by itself and putting it into a kaleidoscope.

Juston M. Ticknor has worked with Taylor Elevator Corp. for more than five years in residential service and sales and commercial modernization.

by Mark Wickens

The Palomar Medical Center Hospital (PMC West) elevator installation was successfully completed by the ThyssenKrupp Elevator San Diego office in July 2012. The center is located north of San Diego in Escondido, California, and operated by Palomar Pomerado Health (PPH). PMC serves as the primary provider for the largest hospital district in California. The new hospital building is intended to function as a hub for trauma and critical care for the district, as well as support its many outpatient clinics and acute-care centers.

The nearly US$1-billion PMC West is distinguished as a “Hospital of the Future.” The building was designed around new and emerging medical technologies. Architectural and structural design models were to accommodate and adapt to the rapidly changing medical arts and practices. In an effort to realize its decade-long vision, PPH enlisted the primary design team of CO Architects, DPR Construction and KPFF Engineering.

ThyssenKrupp Elevator’s Sales team, lead by John Swilley, received was chosen participate in the project. ThyssenKrupp Elevator’s project management and coordination team, facilitated by your author, was brought in very early in the design process as members of the design build team. The company’s contract included:

• Three TAC 50-04, 500-fpm gearless (inverted) adjacent ThyssenKrupp Elevator 530 machines
• Two TAC 50-04, 500-fpm gearless (inverted) adjacent ThyssenKrupp Elevator 450 machines
• Three TAC 50-04, 500-fpm gearless overhead ThyssenKrupp Elevator 450 machines
• Four TAC 50-04, 500-fpm gearless overhead ThyssenKrupp Elevator 380 machines
• One TAC 50-04, 350-fpm geared adjacent ThyssenKrupp Elevator GD2 machines
• Six TAC 20, hole-less roped hydraulic systems

Having the elevator contractor on the design team allowed for a more complete design of critical structural elements. The result was the ability to prefabricate those elements along with the rest of the building structure, thereby saving on subsequent costs of fabricating in the field.

Due to high specifications and building standards, hospital projects in California can be very challenging to any trade. During the design phase of the project, ThyssenKrupp Elevator was challenged to comply with newly adopted California Building Code requirements, requiring the company and the design team to reevaluate the products for compliance. One requirement was a revised interpretation of special seismic certification of critical elements in the building design with respect to building function after seismic activity. ThyssenKrupp Elevator’s engineering team enlisted Wyle Laboratories of Huntsville, Alabama, to perform the necessary testing and reporting. With further assistance from KPFF Engineering, testing and approvals were completed without impact to the original project schedule.

The installation phase went smoothly. ThyssenKrupp Elevator Construction Field Foreman Jeremy Towne, working under the direction of General Field Superintendent David Schafer, led the installation teams for the 30-month construction duration. No injuries were reported during the 42,000 hours worked.

Most who contributed their best efforts to this project have come to realize its planning, designing and building is a small part of a greater project to serve the community for many decades to come.

Mark Wickens has served the elevator industry for the past 31 years in such roles and capacities as construction and modernization project manager, safety coordinator and instructor, field construction superintendent, elevator safety consultant and certified conveyance mechanic/foreman.

The EURO-LIFT 2012 elevator expo was held in the central Polish city of Kielce on October 24-26, 2012. The event provided the opportunity to present many lift products to Polish contractors, specifiers and users of lift and escalator equipment. This is particularly important now in Poland, as much modernization and upgrading of lift equipment is required to conform to European Union (EU) directives, along with the surge of new developments initiated by EU membership. Also, the Safety Norm for Existing Lifts initiative is just starting to gain recognition and is now underway in the EU, which is resulting in the need for extra safety equipment on many existing lift installations.

This was the second event organized by Targi Kielce S.A. and its partners EWIT and PALM (Polish lift association) at the modern exhibition complex TargiKielce Exhibition & Congress Centre. Although there is not an international airport nearby, there are road and rail links to both Warsaw and Krakow, Poland, which also afforded the international visitor a chance to see some of the countryside and gain a feel for the development activity happening in the region. Looking out of the train window, it was clear that a great deal of construction on infrastructure, business parks, office buildings, shopping malls, residential apartments and homes has been started. So, upon arriving in Kielce, it was no surprise to see the roads being improved and a mass of construction projects, including further development of the exhibition complex.

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According to Stannah, the star of the show is a new five-person, 357-kg-capacity hydraulic scenic elevator, which was installed in an existing lift shaft, retaining the “caged” surround from the original 1930s style. Stannah added a finer mesh to improve safety within the completely glass lift car, with no lift workings showing in the shaft. This is achieved with direct-acting hydraulics using a telescopic ram, to facilitate a reduced overall length of the piston. The lift travels from the ground floor, has four stops and is used primarily by VIPs.

Stannah also supplied a duplex of its Xtralifts, which travel five floors and are designed for 13 passengers (1000 kg). The cars are stretcher-style and have through-car entrances with walls finished in decorated glass. Stannah also provided an additional Xtralift (same size and format), which is used for goods and serves the back of the building. The car is finished in stainless steel.

A 13-person lift was installed inside the Little Newport Street side entrance, directly from the China Town district. The through-car lift has adjacent entrances and features decorated glass wall panels. Because the installation of this lift affected the area’s Chinese community, the developer donated a Stannah Midlift SL platform lift to the community’s center to improve its access over three floors.

Stannah also assisted the building with other accessibility issues by installing a platform lift and a Stairiser wheelchair platform lift. The wheelchair lift provides access to the building’s top floor. The stairs lead to another single-entrance Xtralift that has two restricted-use stops to provide additional support for back-of-the-house staff, while front-of-the-house stops are for the Heliot Restaurant on the second floors and the poker level on the fourth floor, situated on the highest balcony. The venue also boasts four Microlifts (dumbwaiter food lifts) and a Microlift for collecting the proceeds from the gaming floors.

The project was managed by Stannah major projects team, which specializes in working closely with developers, architects and contractors. All lifts will be maintained by the London and South East branches of Stannah Lifts Services.

ELEVATOR WORLD is always proud to present its annual Project of the Year contest winners each January issue. This year, EW received 25 entries in nine categories. Our highly regarded panel of judges scrutinized each entry and, as always, had difficult decisions to make. Each project entry exemplified team members joining together to overcome challenges, while going above and beyond to bring their projects in on time, on budget, 100% complete and to the clients’ satisfaction. First Place winners for each category have been presented with trophies commemorating their outstanding work.

The EW staff and the Project of the Year judges would like to congratulate and thank all entrants for their participation. We hope EW readers will enjoy some of our industry’s most significant accomplishments from the past year. We’re looking to make the 2014 contest an even bigger success and welcome your entry. Participation in the contest builds company spirit and staff camaraderie, and improves client gratification. Start thinking now of any noteworthy projects your company is working on that may be eligible for entry in 2014’s competition. The project should be comprised of a vertical, horizontal or inclined transportation system consisting of an innovative design, special application or approach that solved a major problem or overcame a unique challenge. Complete contest entry parameters will be available in the April 2013 issue of EW and online at www.elevatorworld.com after April, and, as always, the submission deadline is August 31st.

Download Category 1: Elevators, New Construction as a PDF

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