Infinity Tower Opens

Brazil

New York-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates completed Infinity Tower in the financial district of São Paulo in September 2012. The 118-m-tall tower contains 39,000 m² of office space and is to serve as Apple’s Brazilian headquarters. Its “sails” wrap each level with two sweeping curves of a glass curtain-wall system that supports the exterior fins to control sunlight and glare. The ground floor features a series of reflecting pools, shaded walkways and landscaped green areas.

Canada

Toronto’s L Tower Tops Out

Studio Daniel Libeskind celebrated the topping out of Toronto’s 58-story L Tower in October 2012. The residential building rises 205 m high and includes 600 units. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Toronto is home to more than 80% of Canada’s tall-building construction. As of October 2012, the council states, 16 of the 19 towers under construction in Canada are in Toronto. Five of the Toronto towers under construction are taller than 200 m, some of which are set to approach 85 stories. Construction on the L Tower, which began in 2010, is expected to end this year.

China

Canny Celebrates 15 Years, To Build Facility

On October 18, 2012, Canny Elevator Co., Ltd. celebrated its 15th anniversary and broke ground on its Wujiang Industrial Park. At the former event, Canny President Wang Youlin set a goal to reach CNY10 billion (US$1.61 billion) in five years. Li Shoulin, chairman of the Chinese Elevator Association, Tan Jianrong, a professor at Zhejiang University and scholar at the Chinese Engineering Institute, leaders of both Wujiang and Suzhou, and 200 other guests attended the celebration.

Shoulin was also among those participating in the foundation-laying ceremony for the company’s Wujiang Industrial Park. This 530,000-m² project will be built in two phases consisting of 250,000 m² and 280,000 m², respectively. The work includes a spare-parts R&D center, a conference center, an office building, a workers’ dormitory and a refectory. The main portion of the project is divided into upper and lower parts factories, a metal-structure parts factory, an elevator-door machine factory, a traction-machine factory, an electronic-control factory, sectional materials and a products factory. Upon completion, Canny plans to move its spare-parts subsidiary to the new site.

Finland

Kone Raises Score In CDP

KONE achieved a score of 90 out of 100 in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) for 2012, an increase from 83 in 2011 and the third-straight yearly increase for the company. A high score indicates good internal data management and understanding of climate-change-related issues affecting the company. Reporting is based on achievements KONE has made to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The company was also included in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index, which lists the top 10% of the 260 companies included in the CDP Nordic report. This is the second year in a row KONE has been in this list.

KONE’s long-term environmental objectives are to further improve the ecological efficiency of its solutions, modernize existing elevators and escalators to make them more energy efficient, and further reduce the environmental impact of its operations – especially its carbon footprint. Hanna Uusitalo, Environmental director at KONE, remarked, “Environmental excellence is a joint effort of our employees around the organization, as well as our partners, and I want to thank all who have contributed to this success.”

France

Project Balard to be Equipped by Otis

Otis France has won the contract for a large-scale regrouping of the Ministry of Defense sites in the Balard area of Paris’ 15th arrondissement. This project comprises the installation of 108 Gen2® elevators, to be equipped with the company’s regenerative-drive system, ReGen™ Drive, as well as the signing of a 27-year maintenance contract. Project Balard, also known as the “French Pentagon,” is a large-scale building project expected to bring together the administrative staff and central services of the Ministry of Defense, which are currently scattered across various sites throughout the city. The elevators to be used are manufactured in Otis’ Gien factory in the Loiret.

 The multiphase project began in December 2007. Otis has since managed the maintenance of eight elevators in Tower F and installed 10 Gen2 elevators with the ReGenDrive in Tower A. An environmentally friendly, bioclimatic design for future work includes fitting the main building with solar panels, part of a plan for nearly 80% of its energy needs being fulfilled using self-generated renewable energy. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2014.

Saudi Arabia

Kingdom Tower Work Begins

Saudi BAUER Foundation Contractors Ltd. announced in October 2012 it had signed a deal for the enabling works for Kingdom Tower, the 1-km-tall tower planned for Jeddah, which received its final license in February 2012 (ELEVATOR WORLD, May 2012). Kingdom Tower will have 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a speed of 10 mps in both directions. It was also noted that the tower includes a sky terrace at its 157th floor for penthouse use.

South Korea

Canny at Safety Expo

On October 23-26, 2012, the Korea Lift Safety Expo 2012 was held in the Coex Exhibition Centre in Seoul. More than 60 companies in 300 booths participated, showing completed elevators, elevator spare parts, parking machines and safety innovations. China-based Canny Elevator Co., Ltd. had a large booth that attracted many professionals. Now exporting to 45 foreign countries, Canny continues to service South Korean metro lines, as it has since the Korean Metro Lines project in 2006.

U.K.

CIBSE Awards Researchers

The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) awarded the Carter Bronze Medal to researchers Dr. Richard Peters, Dr. Rory Smith and Elizabeth Evans for their paper “The Appraisal of Lift Passenger Demand in Modern Office Buildings.” CIBSE President David Fisk presented the award at the ceremony held on October 12, 2012, at The Royal Society in London. The paper was selected for its relevance and impact on current design.

According to Peters:

“Our goal is to improve design by making [elevator] traffic simulation as realistic as possible; to do this, we need to understand passenger demand. Data was collected at a number of office buildings in different parts of the world, including Europe, North America and the U.A.E.”

Lift Symposium Call For Papers

The University of Northampton and Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Lifts Group have announced the third Symposium on Lift and Escalator Technologies, to be held in Northampton on September 26-27. The symposium brings together experts in the field of vertical transportation, offering an opportunity for speakers to present peer-reviewed papers on the subject of their research. Speakers will include industry experts, academics and postgraduate students. For more information or to submit an abstract, visit website: www.liftsymposium.org.

Hospital Undergoing Elevator Replacements

The King Edward VII Memorial Hospital in Paget, Bermuda, is undergoing several elevator replacements, which began in October 2012 and are expected to take approximately 36 weeks. The original elevators were installed in 1972 and are being replaced as part of the facility’s required maintenance plan to ensure safety and reliability. The building’s two elevators in the Eastern wing will be replaced first, followed by the two elevators in the Western wing.

Worldwide

Report On 2011-2015 Elevator Market

In October 2012, Reportlinker made a new market-research report, “Global Elevator and Escalator Market 2011-2015” available in its catalog. In it, TechNavio forecasts the global elevator and escalator market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.57% over 2011-2015. “Comfortable movement” is considered one of the key factors contributing to this market growth. Also, though energy-efficient elevators and escalators have been developed and are being marketed, high costs of elevators and escalators decrease the adoption rate and could pose a challenge to growth. Other topics discussed include market size, key trends and opportunities.

The report covers the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and the Asia Pacific areas. It also covers the global market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market. Key vendors, including Otis, Schindler and ThyssenKrupp, are discussed in detail, and KONE, Fujitec, Hyundai Elevators, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems, Johnson Lifts, and Shanghai Yungtay Elevator Equipment Co. receive mention. To order the report, contact Nicolas Bombourg at Reportlinker at phone: (805) 652-2626 or e-mail: nicolasbombourg@reportlinker.com.