Elevator World

MORE TEI ORDERS IN NYC

TEI Group is to install four overhead gearless traction elevators and two hydraulic elevators at the 32-story Bryant Park Hotel and apartment building in Midtown New York City (NYC). In the Meatpacking District, TEI was contracted by Triton Construction to install three overhead gearless traction elevators, one machine-room-less (MRL) elevator, two hydraulic elevators and one material lift at 413-435 West 14th Street. In Manhattan, Bravo Builders hired the company to install two gearless traction, one MRL, one hydraulic and two residential elevators at the 20 East End Avenue condominium project. In SoHo, TEI was awarded a contract with Exa USA Corp. to install one custom glass hydraulic elevator and two dumbwaiters for Dolce & Gabbana at 155 Mercer Street. The Italian luxury retailer is opening another store in Manhattan, taking over all four levels of a SoHo building.

30 ESCALATORS FOR NEW BANGALORE METRO STATION

Thirty escalators are among amenities at the new Majestic station, a key part of a major expansion of the Namma Metro in Bangalore, India, The Hindu reports. Earlier in 2016, 20 of the units had been installed at the station, which will have both street and underground levels. In January, metro officials expected the expansion to be operational in June 2016. They expect the Majestic station to handle up to 20,000 passengers daily and equipment (including the escalators) to last approximately 50 years.

REPORT LOOKS AT EMERGING ELEVATOR TECHNOLOGIES

Research and Markets has announced the availability of a report looking at emerging vertical-transportation technologies around the world during 2014-2019. Continued urbanization is expected to drive a compound annual growth rate of 12.23% in terms of new units installed over that timeframe, with elevator time management and passenger comfort being a particular focus of major players such as Otis and thyssenkrupp.

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-26-2016/

LERCH BATES WINS “MILESTONE” WASHINGTON STATE PROJECT

Lerch Bates Inc. has been hired by Kemper Development Co. and Affiliates to design the vertical-transportation system for the 1.5-million sq. ft. expansion of Lincoln Square in Bellevue, Washington, which includes 47 elevators and six escalators. The expansion consists of 400 Lincoln Square, a 31-story office building overlooking Lake Washington and downtown Seattle, and Two Lincoln Tower, a 40-story W hotel joined with a midrise apartment building. 400 Lincoln Square and Two Lincoln Tower will sit atop a multilevel podium housing retail and entertainment. Lerch Bates Area Vice President Jeff Marsh called it “the next milestone in the city's evolution to a regional business hub."

FLORIDA COMPANIES GIVE GIFT OF MOBILITY

Harmar and 101 Mobility, both of Sarasota, Florida, teamed up to donate the family of Grayson Tullio, a 12-year-old local boy living with a debilitating form of muscular dystrophy, a lift that helps him get in and out of his pool. Harmar was the preferred lift brand of the family. Harmar provided the lift, and dealer 101 Mobility provided the installation. Both companies said it was a very rewarding experience.

NEW DATES FOR INTERNATIONAL LIFT EXPO KOREA

The dates for International Lift Expo Korea 2016, to take place at COEX in Samsung-dong, Seoul, have been amended. The Korea Elevator Safety Institute-organized event will now be conducted on November 16-19. For more information, contact COEX at phone: (82) 2-6000-1058, fax: (82) 2-6000-1333 or e-mail: [email protected].

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-25-2016

THYSSENKRUPP WINS MAJOR ORDER FOR MUNICH METRO

thyssenkrupp has been awarded a contract to supply and install 102 escalators throughout the Münchner Verkehrsgesellscharft public-transit system in Munich, Germany, signifying a record order in that country and a record month for thyssenkrupp in Germany. Installation is to take place over four years, part of a plan by public utility Stadtwerke Munchen GmbH (SWM) to replace 125 escalators through 2019. SWM spent more than one year choosing a company to perform the work, which also includes dismantling and disposing of the old units and supporting the TÜV inspection process.

TWISTY RESIDENTIAL TOWER IN SAN FRANCISCO

Pending approval, a 400-ft.-tall, 40-story residential tower with a twisty design will start taking shape at 160 Folsom Street in San Francisco, next to the future Transbay Terminal public-transportation and retail hub, Hoodline reports. Surpassing the current height restriction by 100 ft., the building is set to include approximately 390 residential units, some of which will be "affordable"; retail; parking; and open space. If approved, a development team that includes Tishman Speyer hopes to complete the structure by 2018.

FALL DOWN ELEVATOR SHAFT AT N.J. TRAIN STATION PROBED

Transit police in New Brunswick, New Jersey, are investigating a January 18 incident in which a 36-year-old man coming from New York fell three stories down an elevator shaft in New Brunswick’s downtown station, New Brunswick Today reports. The incident happened at approximately 5:40 a.m. in an out-of-service shaft, and emergency personnel took approximately 1 hr. to rescue the man, who was hospitalized with a back injury.

EW FOCUSES ON EDUCATION AND TRAINING

ELEVATOR WORLD will focus on Education and Training in its April issue, which will include coverage on the LIFTECH EXPO in Cairo and the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation Annual General Meeting. It will also receive bonus distribution at Elevcon in Madrid. The deadline for submissions is February 15. To participate or for more information, contact the EW Editorial Department at phone: (251) 479-4514, ext. 30 or email: [email protected].

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-22-2016/

OTIS CHINA OUTFITTING HOTEL IN GUANGDONG

Otis Elevator China Co., Ltd. is outfitting the under-construction Dongguan Huijing Hilton Hotel in Guangdong, China, with 26 elevators and escalators. Products include high-speed SkyriseTM and energy-efficient Gen2® elevators. Located in Houjie in the Pearl River Delta, the hotel is expected to cater to a growing number of business travelers. Upon completion in 2017, the 270,000-m2 structure will be the largest hotel in Asia in terms of number of guest rooms, and include apartments, offices and stores.

COMPANIES FROM HOUSTON, CZECH REPUBLIC PARTNER

Century Elevators, Inc., of Houston, a full-service rack-and-pinion elevator manufacturer, has formed a partnership with PEGA Hoist Ltd. of the Czech Republic that gives Century exclusive rights to sell PEGA rack-and-pinion systems in 32 U.S. states and internationally. Products will be manufactured at both Century's Houston plant and in Europe. Century will offer a full range of permanent, special-purpose elevators in line with ASME A17.1 and ANSI A10.4 code. Century is owned and operated by the former owners of Champion Elevators, Inc., and PEGA has been family owned and operated since 1994.

LARGE CASINO RESORT TO TAKE SHAPE IN MASSACHUSETTS

A US$1-billion contract to build the Wynn Resort casino in Everett, Massachusetts, was awarded to Boston-based Suffolk Construction Co., which has experience with such work, The Boston Globe reports. The company expects to break ground in the spring on the project, which includes a 24-story curved, glass hotel tower, gaming areas, retail and meeting space over 3 million sq. ft. The resort is expected to open in late 2018.

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-21-2016

CHANGES AT THE TOP AT SCHINDLER

Alfred N. Schindler, great-grandson of the cofounder of Schindler, Robert Schindler, announced that he plans to step down as chairman of the Swiss OEM in 2017, prompting upper-management promotions. Current Chief Executive Silvio Napoli becomes a board member and chairman designate. Napoli will be replaced in April 2016 by Thomas Oetterli, head of Schindler's operations in China since 2013. Alfred Schindler will remain a board member, a position he has held for 40 years. Schindler said it is confident in its succession plan, since the executives have more than 20 years of experience each.

HET SUPPLYING MAJOR ISTANBUL PROJECT

Hyundai Elevator Turkey (HET) is providing 39 elevators, 22 escalators and four moving walks to Water Garden Istanbul, a mixed-use "gastronomy center" set to open in the second quarter of 2016 in the International Istanbul Finance Center in the Atasehir part of Istanbul. The development includes a shopping mall, 15,000-m2 park, restaurants, movie theaters, art galleries and aquatic performance areas. HET believes securing this contract strengthens its position in the emerging financial center, home to 560,000 m2 of office, 90,000 m2 of retail and 60,000 m2 of residential space, along with a 2,000-seat conference center, two mosques, schools and public services.

KONE TO SUPPLY 26 UNITS TO TIQ IN EAST LONDON

KONE has been selected to supply 26 elevators to buildings S5 and S6 in The International Quarter (TIQ), part of the redevelopment of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London into the TIQ business district. The developer is Lendlease and the architect is Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. The project is scheduled for completion by late 2017, with installation of passenger and goods elevators, including MonoSpace® and MiniSpaceTM units, to start in June 2016. Some of the elevators will have the PolarisTM destination-control system.

OTIS PLAYING KEY ROLE IN REVITALIZATION OF FRENCH SITE

Otis France has been selected to play a key role in the revitalization of the historic buildings on Paris' Rue de Rivoli and Quai du Louvre that will make up the mixed-use development Nouvelle Samaritaine by providing 65 units: 25 escalators and 40 energy-efficient elevators powered by Gen2TM machines. Designed to reduce energy consumption by optimizing dimensions, materials and component weight, the Gen2s are manufactured at Otis' Gien, France, plant. The 70,000-m2 project is on 10 levels and includes the La Samaritaine department store, a hotel, offices, housing and a daycare center.

LERCH BATES HIRES BLACKWOOD FOR DALLAS AREA OFFICE

Lerch Bates Inc. has hired Don Blackwood as a consultant based out of its South Central Dallas office. He has more than four decades of industry experience, previously holding leadership roles with Otis in the Service and Construction departments in Dallas. In his new role, Blackwood is providing elevator consulting for new equipment design, modernization, maintenance and audits. He performs due diligence and maintenance evaluations, completes studies and oversees construction services. He has been a CEI since 1993 and an instructor for NAESA International and the National Elevator Industry Education Program since 2008.

LIRR REPLACING ESCALATORS AT SIX STATIONS

In a continuation of efforts to improve safety and efficiency, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is replacing escalators at six stations along the Babylon branch at a cost of US$14 million, LI Herald reports. Outdated 24-in.-wide escalators are being replaced with 32-in.-wide ones, for which replacement parts, such as combplates and rollers, will be easier to find. The new units are going in at the Amityville, Baldwin, Copiague, Freeport, Lindenhurst and Rockville Centre stations. They will include obstruction-detection systems and sleep mode for energy savings, as well as improved windscreen enclosures. Work began in 2015 and is scheduled to wrap up in fall 2016.

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-19-2016

LIBERTY ACQUIRES PENNSYLVANIA FIRM

Liberty Elevator Experts of Delaware has acquired Johnson Elevator Inspections of central Pennsylvania, the first of what Liberty President Christopher Dodds describes as several planned acquisitions in the mid Atlantic U.S. He stated: "We are poised for rapid expansion along the East Coast. Johnson Elevator Inspections was a great firm that performed quality inspection services since 2012. We are honored that they have chosen to consolidate their business into ours, and we are all the better for it."

TODDLER’S FATAL FALL FROM ESCALATOR IN CHINA

A three-year-old girl died as a result of falling four floors from an escalator in a shopping mall in Kunming, China, on January 10, marking the third time a child has been involved in an escalator accident in China in the past week, the Daily Mail reports. The children survived the other two accidents. A security video of the most recent scene shows several young children playing around the escalator when the three-year-old attempts to ride the handrail up before falling. She was unattended at the time.

INDIAN RAILWAYS PREPARING FOR SIMHASTHA

An Indian Railway official paid a surprise visit to Indore station in central India on January 9 to make sure the station is ready to receive visitors related to the Simhastha celebration, planned for April 22-May 21, The Times of India reports. The official said there will be escalators installed outdoors at platforms one and five, rather than indoors as originally planned, and that elevators go in at platform one and near the station sign board.

ALIMAK PROVIDING CONSTRUCTION HOISTS IN INDIA

Alimak Group has booked a pair of construction-elevator orders in India totaling US$2.46 million. They will be delivered during the first and second quarters of 2016 for use in midmarket and premium building projects. Fredrik Betts, executive vice president and head of Business Area Construction, described India as an expanding market with high construction activity that Alimak is pleased to continue to support.

SHANGHAI TOWER, WORLD’S SECOND TALLEST, NOW COMPLETE

The 632-m-tall Shanghai Tower in the Lujiazui financial district of Shanghai is now complete, surpassing the Makkah Royal Clock Tower in Mecca as the world's second-tallest building, various news agencies, including dezeen, report. Designed by Gensler with a twisting form aimed to withstand strong winds, the tower contains shops, offices, hotel rooms and cultural facilities in its 121 stories. The tower stands 31 m higher than the Makkah Clock Tower and is second in height only to the 828-m-tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Its completion pushed Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Willis Tower in Chicago out of the top-10 list for the first time.

OUT-OF-SERVICE CARLSBAD CAVERNS ELEVATORS A SORE POINT

City leaders in Carlsbad, New Mexico, are irritated by the amount of time elevators at the state’s only national park, Carlsbad Caverns, have been out of service, the Current-Argus reports. One of two passenger elevators stopped at 650 ft. underground during an inspection on November 4, 2015, and both units were taken out of service since they depend on one another for rescue operations. A pair of freight elevators have been out of service for approximately a year and are expected to return to service by March 1. Engineers put a rough estimate on bringing the passenger elevators back into operation in approximately six months.

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-15-2016

AVIRE DISPLAYS IN MAJOR CHINESE AIRPORT

Avire has supplied 177 C2 color LCD multimedia displays to Terminal 2 at Tianjin Binhai International Airport in China. The displays, from E-Motive, were designed in accordance with specifications from airport elevator contractor KONE. Forty-one 12.1-in. displays are in-car, with the remaining 136 combined with hall lanterns and gongs in landing areas. The airport is among the fastest growing in China and a major cargo center. It handled approximately 12 million passengers in 2014.

CHILD ESCAPES MAJOR INJURY IN CHINA ESCALATOR MISHAP

The foot of a four-year-old boy traveling with his family became trapped in a gap in an escalator in a Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station in Beijing on January 9, but the child was freed in approximately 20 min. and briefly hospitalized with only minor injuries, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reports. An MTR investigation found the unit in question was in compliance with step and panel gap-width requirements and had last been inspected on December 28, 2015.

CTBUH MARKS COMPLETION OF 100 SUPERTALLS WORLDWIDE

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) marked the completion of 100 supertall buildings (300 m or taller) worldwide when buyers closed on their residences in 432 Park Avenue in New York City (NYC) on December 23, 2015. The 425.5-m-tall superslim tower is the tallest all-residential building worldwide and the 14th tallest overall. Although most supertalls are in Asia and the Middle East, NYC continues to be a supertall hotspot with seven supertalls -- second only to Dubai. While the world's first 50 supertalls were built in the 80-year span between 1930 and 2010, they are now multiplying at a remarkable pace with the number doubling to 100 in only five years.

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-14-2016

2016 A WATERSHED YEAR FOR MANHATTAN SUPERTALLS

This year is a pivotal one for the Manhattan skyline, with six 984-ft.-plus supertalls coming out of the ground that will nearly double New York City’s (NYC’s) number of such buildings, from seven to 13, and change the skyline forever, New York YIMBY reports. YIMBY provides a roundup of the towers that includes descriptions of their designs, locations and timelines. Newcomers include the Nordstrom Tower at 217 West 57th Street, which, at 1,550 ft., promises to become the tallest building in NYC, and 111 West 57th Street, a SHoP-designed, 1,428-ft.-tall building with an Art Deco look.

LML OPENS SOUTH AUSTRALIA BRANCH, TAPS INDUSTRY VETERAN

LML Lift Consultants Pty. Ltd. has opened a branch office in Adelaide, South Australia, and tapped industry veteran Christopher Chatburn to lead it. Chatburn has more than 35 years of experience, working for both Otis and Schindler and filling roles such as senior field adjuster, construction supervisor, sales manager and branch manager. Most recently, he was New Equipment and Modernization manager for Schindler in South Australia. LML believes Chatburn brings a wealth of knowledge about the local market to the company.

TULIP-SHAPED TOWER PLANNED AT ISTANBUL NEW AIRPORT

IGA has chosen a tulip-shaped design by U.S.-based AECOM and Italy's Pininfarina for a 96-m-tall, air-control tower to be built at Istanbul New Airport, architects datafile reports. Tulips originated in Turkey and have been the national symbol for centuries. Tower construction is scheduled to start in May and finish in October 2017. The airport, at full buildout expected to have an annual capacity of 200 million passengers, is scheduled to open in spring 2018 on the European side of Istanbul, near the Black Sea.

PROPOSED TOWER WOULD BE WEST LONDON’S TALLEST

Studio Egret West has proposed a 32-story, glassy building that would include 320 apartments and stand marginally taller than Goldfinger's Trellick Tower, making it the tallest building in West London, Building Design reports. Several plans have failed at the site, which overlooks the Chiswick Roundabout and is easily accessible from Heathrow Airport. Developer Starbones Ltd. hopes its stepped tower, which has been dubbed Chiswick Curve, will become part of an area resurgence, but the proposal has drawn criticism from some who dislike the design.

http://www.elevatorworld.com/industry-news/january-13-2016