Eco Tower Proposed

Brazil

A 105-m-tall, self-sustaining “eco tower” has been proposed for the 2016 Olympic Games, to be held in Rio de Janeiro. Designed to create renewable energy for use in the Olympic Village and city, plans include a large solar power plant that generates energy during the day. Its excess power is to be used to pump seawater into a storage tank within the tower, and at night, the water is to be released to power turbines, which are expected to provide nighttime power for the city. On special occasions, water would be able to be pumped out to create a waterfall over the edges of the building. Dubbed a “machine building” by architectural firm RAFAA, it is to be “a symbol for the forces of nature.”

An elevator will travel to a top-floor observation deck, offering 360° views of the ocean and city. Access to the eco tower is to be gained through an urban plaza and amphitheater 60 m above sea level, which can be used for social gatherings. A cafeteria and shop are planned for the ocean side (behind the waterfall), and a bungee platform is expected for an upper level.

Canada

Aedarsa Promotes Escalator Safety At Expo

With the help of the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation’s (EESF) Safe-T Rider© program, Alberta Elevating Devices and Amusement Rides Safety Association (AEDARSA) provided an interactive exhibitor’s booth at the ninth-annual Safety Expo held earlier this year in Calgary. AEDARSA delivered presentations about escalator inspections, various types of elevating devices and how to properly use such equipment. The booth displayed several examples of how escalators are designed and how the units should be used, and was located near the building’s escalators, which helped the students better understand how they work and how powerful they are. AEDARSA displayed a variety of items to illustrate the injury or damage that can occur when things get caught inside escalators. A discussion on how to act in the event of an emergency followed the presentations and interactive sessions.

China

Kone To Supply Wuxi And Beijing IICG Shopping Centers

KONE has received a contract to supply 69 eco-efficient elevators, 121 escalators and 10 moving walks to two Inter IKEA Centre Group (IICG) shopping centers located in Wuxi and Beijing, respectively. Both will serve a catchment area of more than 12 million people. For the three-story, 210,000-m² Beijing shopping center, KONE will deliver 21 MonoSpace® passenger elevators, 14 TranSys™ service elevators, 10 freight elevators, 63 TravelMaster™ escalators and 10 moving walks. For the three-story, 150,000-m² shopping center in Wuxi, KONE will deliver 13 S MonoSpace® passenger elevators and 11 freight elevators, as well as one TransitMaster™ and 57 TravelMaster™ escalators. Both IICG shopping centers will also have E-Link monitoring systems. The Wuxi shopping center is scheduled to open at the end of 2013, and the Beijing shopping center is scheduled to open at the end of 2014.

Mitsubishi Receives Two Orders For Chengdu City

Mitsubishi Electric received orders to supply 88 units at Chengdu Hilton International Square and Chengdu International Mart in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. At Chengdu Hilton International Square, a 165.8-m-tall mixed-use building to include offices, residences and a hotel, 48 elevators will be installed, including 11 high-speed models that can travel up to 6 mps, as well as four escalators. The order was placed by Chengdu George Seaton Real Estate Co., Ltd. For Chengdu International Mart, a 39-story, 168-m-tall structure to include offices, residences and commercial facilities, 36 elevators will be installed, including four high-speed models that can travel up to 6 mps. The second order was placed by Chengdu Sino-Strong Co., Ltd. The two buildings are currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2013.

Otis Partners With Cgf For “One Elevator One Tree” Program

Otis Elevator (China) Investment Co. Ltd. partnered with the China Green Foundation (CGF) to launch the “One Elevator One Tree” program to donate trees while selling elevators in the Chinese market. Otis describes the program as a bid to extend its commitment to environmentally sustainable development, beyond manufacturing processes and operations. As part of the Beijing-Tianjin Shelterbelt, the first batch of approximately 100 trees in the “Otis Forest” has taken root in Fengning BaShang, Hebei Province. The second batch of approximately 500 trees was planted in BaShang in August.

Chen Peng, CGF deputy secretary-general, commented on Otis’ involvement:

“We are very happy to see Otis, as a global leader in the elevator industry, actively involved in China’s green undertaking with its innovative, sustainable ‘One Elevator One Tree’ idea. We are also anticipating an increasing number of enterprises to get involved via the ‘One Elevator One Tree Green Alliance,’ further driving society as a whole to play an active part in China’s environmental protection and sustainable development.”

The “One Elevator One Tree” program is a local practice of Otis’ global green strategy, The Way to Green™ (ELEVATOR WORLD, June 2011), which was launched worldwide in early 2011 to incorporate environmental awareness into every aspect of its business, from manufacturing and products to operations. The Otis TEDA Manufacturing Center in China has achieved gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® certification. Otis (China) won the “2011 Eco-China Cooperation Award” at the 2011 Green Public Welfare Pageant held in June for its contributions to the development of China’s public-welfare programs. Sponsored by CGF and supported by the State Forestry Administration and the National Forestation Commission, the ceremony commended contributors for their devotion to the nation’s forestation efforts.

German

Schindler Supplies Cruise Ships

Schindler’s Marine division has signed a contract with MEYER WERFT shipyard of Papenburg to supply elevators for two new passenger ships. Each Royal Caribbean International cruise ship will be fitted with 16 passenger elevators, including six scenic units, 13 service elevators, three dumbwaiters and three accessibility platforms. The ships are each to be delivered in fall 2014 and spring 2015. Weighing 158,000 gross registered tons, they will be able to carry more than 4,100 passengers. Schindler Marine reports its engineering team has been working on the project for more than a year, developing customized solutions for a scheduled 2013 installation.

Ber Project Behind Schedule

According to The Wall Street Journal, construction of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) has seen delays that will push its opening back to March 2013, if not later. Earlier this year, BER was planned to have opened in June (ELEVATOR WORLD, April 2012). Various sources site fire-detector, funding and security concerns as reasons for delays. The new airport was to replace Berlin’s current Tegel and Schoenefeld airports, though a recent analysis found Tegel will have to remain open, because the new airport will lack sufficient capacity.

India

Surat To Receive Bridges With Escalators, Elevators

Surat Municipal Corp. plans to construct six foot overbridges equipped with escalators and elevators in Surat. According to The Times of India, these would be the first overbridges with escalators in the state. Their construction will be on a “build, own, operate and transfer” basis under a public-private partnership for 30 years. Each unit will include an escalator on each side of the bridge and an elevator with a capacity of 20 passengers. The following locations are to receive the structures: Chowpathy at Athwalines, near Iscon Mall at Gaurav Path on Dumas Road, near the railway station, on LH Road, near Man darwaja on Ring Road and on the Varacha main road. The target completion date is summer 2013.

Indonesia

Number Of Skyscrapers Predicted To Double By 2015

The number of skyscrapers in Jakarta is predicted to double by 2015. According to CTBUH, the city will have 250 buildings taller than 150 m by 2020. Property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) said there were only 40 tall buildings in Jakarta in 2009, but the number jumped to 75 in 2012. JLL predicts 34 million sq. ft. of additional office space will appear in the next six years in the city’s central business district, joining the existing 46 million sq. ft. “Big institutional investors are returning to Indonesia, creating big corporate growth in the country and high demand for properties,” Anton Sitorus, head of research at JLL’s Indonesia office, said. “It’s the beginning of a property boom in Indonesia.”

Singapore

Marina Bay Sands Taps Kone For Maintenance

KONE has been awarded a five-year contract from Marina Bay Sands to maintain its 152 elevators and 10 escalators. The integrated resort features three 57-story hotel towers crowned by the Sands SkyPark, which bridges the towers (ELEVATOR WORLD, February 2011). The lower buildings comprise a museum, retail space, a convention/exhibition center, two theaters and a casino. KONE provided the majority of the complex’s elevators and escalators. The company’s preventive-maintenance program, KONE Care™, includes a unique maintenance plan for the site and each piece of equipment.

South America

Wheelchair Lifts Installed At National Pantheon

V.I.P. Elevator, a Garaventa Lift dealer in Venezuela, completed the installation of two wheelchair lifts at the National Pantheon of Caracas, Venezuela. The historical site houses the remains of several heroes who helped South America gain independence from the Spanish. V.I.P. Elevator installed Xpress II lifts for the renovation project. The inclined wheelchair lifts are designed for straight stairways with two landings and can be installed with little or no structural modifications.

South Korea

Lift Safety Expo To Lay Foundations For Global Growth

This year’s Korea Lift Safety Expo will lay the foundations for it to become an international event, Chang-seok Kong, the president of Korea Elevator Safety Institute and the head of the Korea Lift Safety Expo 2012 organizing committee, said. Organized by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the four-day event will begin October 23 at the COEX exhibition center in Seoul. “In order to compete with international expos specializing in elevator technologies, the scale of the event needs to be expanded through a convergent exhibition strategy,” Kong said.

The expo is the largest of its kind held in the country, and the organizers aim to elevate it to an international expo for 2014. 

“Unlike the previous event, this year’s event will be held under the theme ‘Green City Week,’ and five exhibitions on elements essential for establishing a large city – elevators, construction, buildings, public facilities and security equipment – will be held together.” The scale of this year’s event has been increased by more than fivefold compared to that of 2010.

In addition to including a wider range of exhibitors and topics, the organizing committee will operate a business center that will provide marketing support for participating companies.

Kong hopes to have at least 70 corporate exhibitors at this year’s event. He added that the number of foreign buyers and visitors attending the event will likely be boosted by the fact the International Organization for Standardization’s elevator technical committee is meeting in South Korea during the expo. For more information, visit website: liftexpo.co.kr.

Thailand

NFC Smartphones Used To Choose Elevators

Jardine Schindler (Thai) Ltd. used 3G Personal Occupant Requirement Terminal (PORT) technology for elevators at the Park Ventures high rise in Bangkok. Smartphone users with near field communication can choose elevators using PORT. According to the Bangkok Post, the system uses a predictive algorithm to calculate the passenger’s desired floor and choose the most suitable elevator car. This new method can reduce wait time and support evacuation operations in an emergency by suggesting the safest lift for each floor. Suwanna Kongkanjana, managing director of Jardine Schindler, said, “It could improve traffic efficiency by up to 30% compared with a conventional elevator system.” PORT is specially tailored for high-rise buildings with at least 20 stories. Park Ventures is the first building in Bangkok to install the company’s new elevator system, with SCG, Equinox and Lumpini Tower as future customers.

U.A.E.

EHC Agreement With Dubai Company

EHC Global of Oshawa, Canada, signed an agreement with Elevator Engineering Enterprises LLC (EEE) as a licensee. Located in Dubai, EEE will distribute and field splice EHC handrails in U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt. EEE supplies customized elevators and escalators, maintenance solutions and lift components. EEE can now add hundreds of items to its product catalog, as EHC manufactures escalator handrails and safety brushes, and elevator and escalator rollers and roller-guide assemblies. President of EHC Jeno Eppel said, “The U.A.E., Saudi Arabia and Qatar are rapidly expanding, and we’re thrilled to have EEE as our licensee to ensure that EHC products are installed throughout this region.”

Worldwide

USGBC Announces Leed Certifications

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that more than 2 billion sq. ft. of commercial projects have been certified worldwide through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) green building program. An additional 7 billion sq. ft. is in the pipeline. According to Rick Fedrizzi, USGBC president, CEO and founding chair:

“In communities around the globe, leaders from every sector of the building industry are reinventing their local landscapes with buildings that enliven and bolster the health of our environment, communities and local economies. The journey to this milestone has energized our economy – funneling US$554 billion annually into the U.S. economy alone – and has helped support 7.9 million jobs across the U.S.”

LEED certifies 2 million sq. ft. of commercial building space daily in more than 130 countries. Nearly 50,000 commercial projects are participating in LEED, comprising 9 billion sq. ft. of construction space.

Kone And Schindler Settle Patent Dispute

KONE and Inventio AG, a company of the Schindler Group, have signed a settlement agreement regarding Inventio’s patent family related to RFID call input technology for elevators, including EP Patent No. 699 617, US Patent No. 5,689,094 and others (the “Patents”). The parties reached the agreement on their dispute over the use of the Patents prior to initiating patent litigation in the matter. The settlement agreement provides KONE a license to use the Patents in its operations worldwide against an agreed consideration. The specific terms of the agreement are confidential.

Physics Prize Winner Includes Maldacena

In July, the Fundamental Physics Prize was awarded to nine physicists. Among the winners, who received US$3 million each, is Juan Maldacena of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Maldacena is the son of ELEVATOR WORLD correspondent Carmen Maldacena and has written for EW (EW, November 2011). Along with winning colleagues Nima Arkani-Hamed, Nathan Seiberg and Edward Witten, Maldacena works developing the “string theory” idea of how the basic particles and forces of the universe are tied together. The other winners are Andrei Linde of Stanford, Alexei Kitaev of the California Institute of Technology, Maxim Kontsevich of France’s Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies, Ashoke Sen of India’s Harish-Chandra Research Institute and Alan H. Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Though the winners in this inaugural event were chosen by Fundamental Physics Prize founder Yuri Milner, future annual winners are to be given awards based on the decision of previous winners. Unlike the Nobel Prize in Physics, the award can be presented to scientists with ideas yet to be verified by experimentation. This is, in Milner’s words, “because it expands our understanding of at least what is possible.” Several winners have expressed hope that the prize will help raise recognition of physics and entice more students to enter the field.