When will we all go back to the office? Paul Leonard, a management consultant at CoStar, a real estate research firm, believes office visits may reach 50% by Labor Day and 80% at year’s end. He computes that 10% of the workforce will stay home permanently to work. One-third of the rest will come back five days a week, and the other two-thirds will work a hybrid week of two days in the office and three days at home. Even though 40% of office workers prefer working from home, 70% believe their workplaces are more conducive to collaboration, solving complex issues, managing staff and connecting with leadership.
How does this affect the vertical-transportation industry? Many of us don’t work in typical office buildings: we’re out in the field or have small suburban offices, and we were considered essential in the pandemic, so we’ve been working all along. But we need and love those big office buildings – they are our world! Right now, new construction is opening back up quickly, but maintenance and modernizations are still slow. Building owners and managers are still responding to empty existing commercial buildings and a slowdown in rental payments. In new construction, one of the big ideas to emerge now is creation of flexible spaces that can be broken down and rearranged as needed. The most popular amenities for landlords and tenants are safety features, such as app-enabled elevators. We feature some of these products in this issue.
Our focus this month is on High-Speed Elevators, which are as important as ever for high-rise office buildings, as the public wishes for a safe and quick ride to their destinations. Our articles on the subject include:
- Study on a Vibration Reduction System for Lift Roller Guides by Yosuke Shima and Dr. Osamu Furuya. It discusses a design that prioritizes compatibility and improves existing passive roller guides to reduce vibration levels at low cost.
- Innovative VT Design for High-Rise Residential Towers by Hongliang Liang and Gasan Guseynov. This article covers a Sovietdeveloped tool often referred to as a “theory of inventive problem-solving.”
- Question on Speed by Erol Akçay. He discusses a number of factors have a role in how fast elevators go – and how fast they need to.
There is so much more in this issue, and we hope you enjoy it. As always, we wish you health and safety.
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