A Remarkable Journey

This month, we are beginning the celebration of our 60th year of publishing ELEVATOR WORLD. It has been a long journey, during which we have covered the “Ups and Downs” of the elevator industry during the last half of the 20th and first decade of the 21st centuries. In this month’s issue, we have included a special section that describes the major topics reported on in the first and following January issues of each decade. This feature provides a snapshot of the major elevator-industry developments that took place during our 60 years of publishing and serves as a brief timeline of some of the industry’s major accomplishments. A more in-depth analysis of the issues published between the ones depicted in our celebratory section will indicate that we have covered numerous national and international association meetings and conferences, major elevator installations and modernization projects, the development and implementation of new technology, and educational meetings and seminars, and provided international and U.S. news we felt would be of special interest to the elevator industry. We are also proud to report that each January for the last 15 years, we have had a great response to our annual Project of the Year contest.

The Project of the Year contest has become a major industry event in which participants tell us they are proud to take part. As you peruse this month’s issue of EW, you will see the response to this year’s contest has, once again, been very good. A total of 25 entries in nine categories were submitted from companies in 10 different nations located throughout Europe, North America, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. The entries were well prepared and described how the project participants expended exceptional effort to apply new technology and how they met their clients’ expectations. Selecting the winners was not an easy task for the judges. Their choices are included in this month’s issue, and the remaining entries will be published in future EW issues throughout the year.

Also included in this month’s issue are reports on the MADE Expo in Milan, Italy, and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s 9th World Conference in Shanghai. These major events and the many others held in 2012, including the United 2012 Conference and Expo (EW, December 2012), are indicative of how pervasive conferences and expos have become in our industry. Offered for comparison is a glimpse at the subjects covered in our first EW issue as shown in our anniversary article, which included a report on what, at the time, was the one and only annual elevator-industry meeting, held by the National Association of Elevator Contractors during which William C. Sturgeon was elected as the third president.

This month, we also focus on elevator traffic analysis, which is an important subject for members of our industry to thoroughly understand. This is particularly true with respect to those organizations involved in high-rise building projects that will contain a high volume of occupants.

Four articles cover this important aspect of elevator-system design. Two were presented as papers at the Elevcon USA 2012 conference held in Miami Beach, Florida. The other two were delivered at the University of Northampton and the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers Lifts Group’s Symposium on Lift and Escalator Technologies in September 2012 (EW, December 2012).  As has been the case throughout our 60-year history, we have strived to fill this month’s issue with diverse subject matter we feel will be of interest to the elevator industry. We thank you for joining us on this trip through the last half of the 20th century, and we invite you to continue with us on what has been a remarkable journey.