MEM Supplies California Museum

by Tom Shield

Modular Elevator Manufacturing, Inc. (MEM) provided a vertical transportation solution for Oxnard, California’s Mullin Automotive Museum. The 46,821-square-foot museum features one of the largest collections of Bugatti and French race cars of the 1930s. In order to open the facility to the public, the building’s accessibility needed to be improved. MEM provided a modular elevator, which was lifted by a crane through a hole in the roof and installed in the space.
The elevator rises from the museum’s main floor through the mezzanine to a roof deck and garden. Symmetrical waveform grilles surround the elevator mechanism which is symbolic of the art deco style, featuring geometric and vertical characteristics. The elevator tower includes a staircase and doubles as a photo gallery.
MEM President and Founder, Tom Shield, explained:
“Mullin Automotive Museum features our direct modular hydraulic elevator, featuring in-ground jacks. This is one of our most popular systems, and it is ideal for a low-rise facility needing an elevator for Americans with Disabilities Act remediation purposes.”
The elevator contains a commercial factory pre-installed elevator in a freestanding structural steel hoistway. The system also features digital controls, a fully equipped standard elevator car, fully assembled modular hoistway tower constructed from welded tubular steel and is powered by an oil hydraulic machine.
David Hertz, founder and president of Studio of Environmental Architecture, added:
“I used a modular elevator for the Mullin Museum project to satisfy both aesthetic and functional needs. MEM was able to exceed my expectations when it came to making the elevator an exposed and integral part of the architecture.”

Tom Shield is president and CEO of MEM. He is responsible for management, business development, marketing and product development. In 1997, T.L. Shield & Associates started manufacturing modular elevators and in 2004 expanded and formed MEM.