“Jewel” of The Broad

Rick Mitchell, director of facilities at contemporary art museum The Broad in downtown Los Angeles, considers the custom Mitsubishi Electric cylindrical glass elevator “one of the many jewels of the museum.” Along with other vertical-transportation (VT) equipment, the Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant unit provides a one-of-a-kind journey to The Broad’s impressive collection of art that dates from the 1950s to now. That collection includes Mark Bradford’s Helter Skelter 1, 2007 (previously owned by tennis star John McEnroe), which grabbed the highest-ever auction price for a work by a living African-American artist when the museum bought it in 2018 for US$11.9 million.^[1]

Headquartered in Cypress, California, Mitsubishi Electric U.S. maintains The Broad’s glass elevator (a hydraulic elevator), three other Mitsubishi Electric passenger hydraulic elevators, one Diamond-Trac® machine-room-less (MRL) elevator, one non-OEM hydro elevator and one non-OEM escalator. Like the VT equipment, The Broad’s VT maintenance service is customized. For example, considering the long lead times involved with certain precisely engineered parts critical to the units’ operation, select parts are stored on-site. A team from Mitsubishi Electric U.S. keeps the elevators and escalator operational on a day-to-day basis. Mitchell says the lead service technician has “become part of our family and has been entrusted to follow our very strict policies and rules” that are in place, of course, due to The Broad’s very valuable and massive collection.

The glass elevator at The Broad recently got a shout-out from one of its favorite elevator enthusiasts — a VT-loving kid. In a YouTube video shared by Mitsubishi Electric U.S., the young man describes it as, “The best elevator I’ve ever ridden!”

Reference

[1] Prince, Daisy, “Broad Museum Acquires Mark Bradford’s ‘Helter Skelter I’ for $11.9 Million,” Penta, March 16, 2018.