1 Bligh Office Tower Inaugurated

Australia

The 1 Bligh Office Tower in Sydney was inaugurated by Prime Minister Julia Gillard on August 30. Designed by Ingenhoven Architects, the 30-story office tower has received a 6 Star/World Leadership certification, the highest green rating offered in the country. It is said to be the first office tower in Sydney to receive such a rating by the Green Building Council of Australia. Among one of the energy-efficient features of 1 Bligh is a vacuum-tube solar collector that produces electricity on site. The transparent office building’s central atrium is considered the main ele-ment of the building and features glass elevators.

China

Mitsubishi To Equip Shanghai Tower

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has received an order from Shanghai Tower Construction & Development Co., Ltd. for the installation of 106 elevators in Shanghai Tower, currently under construction. The elevators would be among the world’s fastest, with some capable of speeds up to 59 fps. Three sets of elevators will travel between the second basement level and the 119th-floor observa-tion deck, while four double-deck elevators traveling at a world-record 33 fps between the ground floor and hotel lobby on the 101st floor will also be installed. The building’s emergency elevator is expected to become the world’s longest-traveling elevator by operating between the third basement level and 121st floor, a distance of 578.5 m.

The seven elevators expected to establish new speed records will incorporate technology to ensure passenger comfort in high speeds, such as active roller guides, sleek roof covers that minimize lateral vibration and noise and pneumatic control to compensate for rapid changes in atmospheric pressure. High-intensity ropes and cables will enable the potential world’s longest-traveling eleva-tor to operate over a distance exceeding 500 m. Ceramic braking material will increase resistance to high temper-atures and strong impacts. All elevators capable of trav-eling at speeds greater than 8.2 fps will also be equipped with energy-saving solutions, including regenerative converters and group-control systems.

Mitsubishi was to begin supplying the units in autumn. Shanghai Tower is expected to become China’s tallest building when completed in 2014.

Kone Receives Order For Rail Link

In October, KONE was awarded an order to supply 139 elevators and five dumbwaiters for Hong Kong’s Express Rail Link project by MTR Corp. In total, 117 elevators will be installed at the new West Kowloon terminus station, serving an estimated 99,000 passengers daily. KONE currently maintains 1,000 elevators and escalators in the existing MTR network.

CTBUH 2012 World Congress Call For Papers

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced its 2012 World Congress to be held on September 19-21, 2012, at the Grand Hyatt Jin Mao Hotel in Shanghai. This will mark the council’s ninth world congress, which will have an emphasis on the Asian skyscraper, as many major advances in typology are taking place in that region. According to CTBUH, global urbanization is occurring at approximately 200,000 people every day, and driving the growth and ex-tension of cities; the result is an increase of skyscrapers.

CTBUH encourages industry professionals to partici-pate in the world congress by submitting a paper that fits the overall theme or a sub-theme of the congress. Among the congress topics will be: “Planning and Infrastructure for Sustainable Skyscraper Cities,” “Best-Practice Urban and Building Case Studies: Asia and The Latest Design,” and “Technical Advances in Tall Buildings.”

The abstract for papers is due on January 13, 2012, with notification of acceptance to be announced on February 24. Full submissions for accepted papers are due on April 20, followed by a peer review and paper edits from April 20-May 31. The “early bird” registration deadline is April 30, and the speaker submission deadline is July 20. For more information, visit website: www.ctbuh2012.com.

Thyssenkrupp Elevator To Supply Airport

In October, ThyssenKrupp Elevator announced its new contract to supply vertical-transportation equipment for the new Kunming Changshui International Airport. The contract includes 77 passenger boarding bridges, 98 esca-lators and 34 moving walks. Scheduled to open in early 2012, the airport will serve as a major hub for South Asia and Europe. The 550,000-m2 terminal is expected to make Kunming the country’s fourth largest airport, and there are plans to double its capacity in the future.

Kone To Equip Eton Place

KONE has been selected to deliver 42 elevators and 60 escalators to the Eton Place Dalian complex in Dalian. The vertical-transportation solutions will be installed in the 280-m-tall Eton Place Tower 2 and six-story commercial podium. The order includes 23 MonoSpace®, 15 MiniSpace™ and four freight elevators, as well as 51 TravelMaster® and nine TransitMaster® escalators. The fastest elevators will travel at speeds up to 8 mps with a maximum travel distance of 271 m. For maximized people flow, the 62-story tower housing offices and apartments will be equipped with KONE’s E-Link™ traffic-monitoring system.

Colombia

International Aiport Receives Thyssenkrupp Elevator Units

The new terminal at Bogota Eldorado International Airport is being equipped with 108 ThyssenKrupp Elevator units. With project completion scheduled in 2014, the ter-minal will receive 39 elevators, 20 escalators, 16 moving walks and 33 passenger boarding bridges. The airport is the country’s largest and serves more than 18 million passengers per year.

Finland

Kone Featured In Climate Leadership Index

KONE has been featured in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Nordic Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index for its professional approach to corporate disclosure of climate change information and reducing its ecological footprint. KONE is helping battle climate change by delivering ecolog-ically friendly elevators, escalators and automatic-door solutions for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design®-rated buildings.

KONE’s carbon footprint analysis revealed that less than one-tenth of its emissions were a result of its oper-ations. Therefore, it has shifted its focus to improving the environmental footprint of its November 2010, the company announced the achievement of its target of 50% reduction in the energy consumption of its new range of volume elevators. KONE was also one of the first elevator companies to achieve the VDI 4707 class-A energy rating for its elevators (ELEVATOR WORLD, October 2010).

France

Kone to Modernize Tour Areva Elevators

KONE has been selected to modernize the elevators in the Tour Areva high-rise building in the La Défense district near Paris. The 184-m-tall building is said to be the second tallest in its area. KONE is to equip the 23 elevators with its ReSolve™ X2 package, which includes KONE’s EcoDisc® hoisting machines and controller, and electrifi-cation system upgrades. The order also includes the Polaris™ destination-control system, capable of increas-ing the handling capacity of the elevators and decreasing wait times. The project is expected to start in January 2012 and take four years to complete.

Thyssenkrupp Elevator Installations

Tour D2, a new 40-story office building in Paris, is being equipped with seven TWIN elevators and 14 cabs, manufactured and supplied by ThyssenKrupp Elevator. This will be France’s first installation of the TWIN system, which maximizes shaft capacity by placing one elevator cab above another in a single shaft. The upper TWIN cabs will travel through the 182-m-tall building at speeds up to 5 mps, while the lower cabs will reach speeds up to 4 mps. Tour D2 will also be equipped with nine conventional elevators and two escalators. The first offices are expected to open in 2014.

In addition, ThyssenKrupp Elevator will provide equip-ment for Tour Majunga, a 48-story office building also located in Paris. The order calls for 26 elevators, 16 of which will be high-speed units, capable of traveling up to 6 mps. Tour Majunga is also expected to be complete by 2014. For both projects, ThyssenKrupp Elevator utilized its regenerative-drive technology, in addition to adjusting cab acceleration and travel speeds, to reduce energy con-sumption. The energy generated when braking is fed into the in-house power networks, resulting in energy savings.

Germany

Greek Association at Interlift

The European Federation for Elevator Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EFESME) introduced POVESA, the Greek federation for the installation and maintenance of elevators, at Interlift 2011 in Augsburg, Germany. Here, POVESA became an observatory member of EFESME, with official membership to follow in May 2012.

POVESA is an authoritative umbrella organization within the elevator sector and recognizes common goals and shared interests with EFESME. Founded in 1989 as the panhellenic federation of installing and maintaining of lift crafts, POVESA’s purpose is to claim, conserve, pro-tect, study and promote the common economic, social and professional interests of its members in the service of society. In particular, this entails growing, developing and disseminating the spirit of unionism to installers, mainte-nance workers and craftsmen to participate in regional trade union links.

Members of POVESA include the five regional trade union links in Greece. The organization works to develop, solidify and aid its members through ever-improving training. It signs collective-bargaining agreements throughout Greece and can be contacted via e-mail: info@povesa.gr or website: www.povesa.gr.

Greece

Kleemann Has An App For Lift Testing

KLEEMANN has launched mobile marketing through its Lift Tester application, created for the Apple iPhone 4. The app utilizes the technological capabilities and sensors of the smartphone, along with special algorithms to measure and assess the motion of a lift. According to KLEEMANN, the program can measure a lift from within its car and get a complete picture of its motion, measuring data such as speed, acceleration, minor vibrations and noise. It is intended to aid in the optimization of the overall installation and operation of a lift, and can present its findings in graph form. The app is available online via free download at website: http://itunes.apple.com/app/lift-tester-lite/id466394473?mt=8.

India

Gold Souk Grande To Launch In 2012

Considered one of the largest specialty malls in Chen-nai, Gold Souk Grande has planned its launch for the first quarter of 2012. The five-story development will feature 182 stores, a multiplex, a food court and a hotel, and will be equipped with 15 lifts and six escalators supplied by Johnson & Co. The mall will be maintained and operated by Super Property Maintenance Pvt. Ltd.

One Avighna Park Project

Toshiba Elevator India Pvt. Ltd. is supplying 19 eleva-tors for the One Avighna Park project currently under construction in Mumbai. With completion scheduled for 2013, the project is comprised of a 64-story residential building and a 23-story residential and commercial build-ing. Although Toshiba Elevator has supplied numerous other major projects, this is its first project in India.

Each tower has passenger elevators segregated into zones for traffic management. The towers will be equipped with three high-speed passenger elevators ca-pable of speeds up to 6 mps, serving levels 24-54. Two additional passenger elevators will serve levels 1-24 at speeds up to 4 mps. In addition, each tower contains two service elevators for all levels and five car-park elevators.

One Avighna Park will also have eight floors of podium parking with a capacity of 2,200 cars and a more than 9,290- m2 recreational facility. The buildings are de-signed to conserve energy, will be equipped with a rain-harvesting system, LED lighting and solar power, among other energy- efficient features.

Hitachi Secures Elevator Order

Hitachi Elevator Asia Pte. Ltd. and Hitachi Lift India Pvt. Ltd. are working together on an elevator order they secured for the JW Marriott Aerocity Hotel currently under construction in New Delhi. The order calls for 19 machine-room-less elevators, including 16 units with a 1600-kg capacity. Six main elevators will be equipped with sur-veillance cameras to monitor the conditions inside the cabs, as well as card authentication devices to limit access to guest-room floors. The cars will also be equipped with LCD displays capable of broadcasting messages from the hotel. Shipment of the equipment began in August, and the hotel is scheduled to be complete in mid 2012.

Kone Manufacturing Plant Near Chennai

KONE India plans to invest in a second manufacturing facility near Chennai. According to KONE India Managing Director Neeraj Sharma, as of October, the company had acquired land for the project in an industrial estate about 35 km from the Bangalore highway. With India’s annual demand of 35,000-40,000 elevators, KONE India’s 8.5-acre facility at Ayanambakkam has reached its manufacturing capacity. The details of the expansion are expected to be finalized by 2014.

The announcement of the expansion was delivered while Sharma was attending a People Flow™ day organized by the company to gather feedback from elevator users on enhancing accessibility and people movement. This year’s focus is to ensure better access to persons with impaired mobility, while enhancing riding comfort. Approxi-mately 135 KONE employees collected data in 17 cities.

Oman

Kone Supplies Muscat Airport

KONE was awarded a contract during the third quarter of this year to supply 122 elevators, 60 escalators and 39 moving walks for the Muscat International Airport. The equipment includes 70 MonoSpace® and 52 TranSys™ elevators, 60 TravelMaster™ escalators and 39 Transit-Master™ moving walks. The airport is currently undergoing a major expansion that is planned to be completed in 2014.

Pakistan

“The Mall” Receives Trophy

In October, President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari pre-sented the 35th Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Com-merce and Industry Trophy Award to CEO of Triple Tree Associates and Siddiqsons Group, Tariq Rafi. The award recognized the successful completion of what the cham-bers considered the tallest building in the country, The Mall (formerly Sofitel).

The Mall cost more than PKR7 billion (US$80.87 mil-lion). When presenting the award, Zardari recognized local investors’ loyalty to the country and pride in the government and nation. He added:

“We should adopt innovative methods and [a] public/private partnership model for increasing economic activities. The construction of the tallest building in the country, The Mall, by Siddiqsons Ltd. and Lucky Cement is the milestone for the country, which predicts [the] bright future of Pakistan.”

The building was envisioned by the late Abdul Razzak Tabba and Tariq Rafi. Standing 393 ft. high with 28 floors, it overlooks the sea at Karachi in Clifton. Features include a large mall, offices, a hotel and souks. According to the Pakistan Observer, some of the fastest and latest elevators and escalators are present in the building.

Philippines

Trump Tower Manila Launched

With the Manila property market proving strong, Expe-rience International, in conjunction with Century Proper-ties, has launched Trump Tower Manila to international investors. The Trump-branded residential condominium will be the first in the Philippines, located in the Makati Central Business District (CBD). The US$150-million sky-scraper will be the final high-rise residential tower to be built at Century City, Century Properties’ mixed-use de-velopment. It was reported that the Philippines achieved its highest gross domestic product growth in 34 years in 2010, after recording 51 consecutive quarters of economic growth, which is expected to continue to make the country a strong prospect for investors. Currently, the demand for residential real estate in Makati CDB is exceeding the supply as vacancy rates continue to significantly decrease.

Switzerland

Schindler Changes In Effect

Jürgen Tinggren was appointed CEO of the Schindler Group (ELEVATOR WORLD, May 2011), effective October 1. Alfred N. Schindler remains chairman of the Board of Directors of Schindler Holding AG, as well as chairman of the board’s Executive Committee. Luc Bonnard is to step down from this committee at the forthcoming Schindler Annual General Meeting (AGM) on March 19, 2012; how-ever, he remains vice chairman of the Board of Directors of Schindler Holding AG.

At its September 22-23 meeting, the board of directors also proposed the election of Dr. Rudolf W. Fischer, head of Corporate Human Resources and member of the Man-agement Committee, to the board of directors, at the AGM. Fischer is expected to also join the Executive Com-mittee of the board as Bonnard’s successor. David Clymo has been appointed head of Corporate Human Resources and member of the Management Committee, as of Janu-ary 1, 2012, to replace Fischer, who will relinquish his of-fice as of January 1, 2012, stepping down from the Man-agement Committee.

Hospital Receives Elevator Retrofit

A bank of six elevators at the 19-story Frauenfeld Re-gional Hospital in Thurgau recently underwent a retrofit. The new elevator systems were built by AS Aufzüge AG and combined with custom-built drive systems supplied by Control Techniques to replace the original control system installed in the 1980s. The Unidrive SP AC drive system was used for the six electrically in-terconnected systems and utilized a four-quadrant power re-generative mode. Due to the system’s modu-lar design, it can be disconnected from the main power supply when not under load and be operated independently without the DC inter-mediate circuit network. The feedback system recycles power via a common DC bus, allowing energy to be returned to the power-supply network.

Activation of drive commands and position manage-ment, displayed on screens in the reception area and in the machine room, occur within the control system and are transmitted via digital signals and DCP-04 bus com-munication to the Unidrive SP drive. Employees are able to reach their destinations directly in batch mode, with optimized stops along the way. The self-optimizing group control function, energy-saving regenerative feature and linked DC intermediate circuit have improved the energy efficiency of the entire elevator system and increased capacity by 30%. The upgrade was implemented with minimal disruption to the hospital’s routine and will save the facility an estimated EUR2,700 (US$3,723) per year.

United Kingdom

Levytator Could Increase Energy Efficiency

According to a research paper presented at the Sympo-sium on Lift and Escalator Technologies on September 29 in Northampton, the Levytator [ELEVATOR WORLD, January 2011], one of the first escalators capable of following freeform curves, could consume less energy than con-ventional escalator designs. Unlike traditional escalators, the Levytator uses a continuous loop of curved modules that can follow any path upward, flatten and straighten out, and descend again, all with passengers onboard. This means that a single Levytator with one power source could be used in place of two escalators with separate motors, with the weight of passengers traveling down offsetting the weight of those traveling up, resulting in substantial energy savings. The research predicts that a fully loaded Levytator (carrying the maximum number of passengers traveling both up and down) would use around 80% of the power used by two traditional escalators making the same trips. A half-loaded Levytator (with the down path full and the up path empty) would use half the energy of two escalators. The Levytator concept was developed by Jack Levy, emeritus professor of Mechanical Engineering at City University London, who has conducted mathemati-cal modeling of its energy use with fellow researcher Elena Shcherbakova.

Worldwide

Otis Announces Contracts, Sustainable Objectives

In October, Otis announced several new contracts it received pertaining to sustainable building projects. Among the projects is a housing reconstruction develop-ment in Jiangsu, China, for which Otis is to supply and in-stall 700 energy-efficient elevators. The equipment will feature Otis’ ReGen™ drive technology, which captures energy generated by the elevators and delivers it back to the building for use by other systems.

In addition, Otis will supply and install 46 elevators and escalators, including 16 Gen2® elevators, for the Lotte World Tower in Seoul. The building is expected to be the world’s second-tallest tower when completed in 2015. Otis will also provide 28 elevators, 25 of which will be Gen2, for medical technology centers in Kaliningrad, Smolensk, Barnaul and Novosibirsk, Russia. Sustainable Objectives

Otis introduced its NCE escalator at the Greenbuild 2011 International Conference held in Toronto in October. The equipment is among the industry’s first to offer a package featuring regenerative drives, power-standby features, LED lighting and high-efficiency lubrication. The NCE is a step toward Otis’ environmental program, The Way To Green™, which was launched in February (ELEVATOR WORLD, April 2011).

Otis also announced plans to build an energy-efficient manufacturing facility in São Paulo, Brazil, and an expan-sion of its factory in Bangalore, India, which is being built to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® Gold standards.

Ctbuh Appoints Chairman

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has appointed Timothy Johnson of the NBBJ ar-chitecture firm as its new chairman. Johnson, who will serve a two-year term, succeeds Professor Sang Dae Kim of Korea University.

Johnson served as a member of CTBUH’s Board of Trustees in 2009. He was also the chair of the council’s Awards Committee and a member of the Advisory Group and Editorial Board of the CTBUH Journal.

Johnson comments on his appointment:

“The CTBUH plays a key role in building a robust framework for the development of tall buildings world-wide. As we enter a new and important phase of develop-ment, it is vital that we gear our decisions toward environmental stewardship, resource stewardship and the making of well-planned urban communities. I am look-ing forward to leading CTBUH at this challenging yet promising time.”

The council will continue to extend its presence in Asia and revitalize its academic programs and activities.