Sky High

Otis elevates transportation for iconic smart building in Shanghai.

by Sally Loh
images courtesy of Otis

For many Shanghai residents, the day begins as it has for hundreds of years, with Tai Chi or a walk in the New Bund Area on the western bank of the Huangpu River. These days, this traditional morning practice takes place alongside the 270-m, 56-floor New Bund Center — the tallest office building in the city’s new Central Business District and a symbol of the future of urban life.

The LEED®-accredited New Bund Center called for sophisticated, intelligent and connected solutions across all aspects of the building to provide the best experiences for workers and residents in the area while contributing to China’s sustainability commitment. The towering 56-floor New Bund Center is a testimony to the local government’s goal of developing the neighborhood into the city’s second business district set to become an upscale hub of urban life. The tower was designed both as a Grade-A commercial office space and as an opportunity to showcase the latest in smart building technologies. Reliable and efficient vertical transportation (VT) are at the heart of this high-rise project.

Through innovative technologies, connected solutions and Internet of Things (IoT)-based service, Otis is providing mobility solutions that match New Bund Center’s smart-building functionality and modern aesthetic, while ensuring around-the-clock reliability and fast, efficient and comfortable passenger journeys. More than 180 Otis elevators and escalators already move passengers through New Bund’s Oriental Sports Center metro hub, which serves the New Bund Center and adjoining facilities, and in several commercial buildings nearby, including the New Bund World Trade Center.

Otis delivered some of its most advanced smart mobility solutions to meet New Bund Center’s unique requirements. We provided 50 elevators and escalators, including 37 SkyRise® high-rise elevators and five Gen3™ connected elevators equipped with robot integration, our state-of-the-art Otis ONE™ IoT platform, and our Compass360™ destination-dispatch system. Meeting a tight schedule and overcoming site constraints and technical challenges during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic proved extra difficult, but the Otis team delivered an on-time installation.

Unique Requirements

The New Bund Center’s transportation systems required a partner that could deliver modern and seamless passenger experiences with exceptional comfort and safety while contributing to the achievement of local environmental goals through lower carbon emissions. The system also needed to seamlessly integrate with other building systems and solutions, match the building’s stylish design aesthetic, provide around-the-clock reliability and add value for the building’s users and managers.

Its Gen3 and SkyRise elevator systems help advance building sustainability by boosting energy efficiency and saving space. And, the interior design aesthetics are specially tailored to reflect the upscale, artistic ambience of developments like New Bund Center. The Otis system also uses data to improve elevator performance and the passenger experience.

Innovative Solutions

To address the unique requirements of the New Bund Center, Otis installed more than 50 elevators and escalators and provided some of its most advanced digital systems. Among them:

• 37 SkyRise high-rise elevators: Specifically designed and engineered for the most demanding tall buildings, the SkyRise is the most advanced Otis high-rise elevator. Combining industry-leading technologies to ensure safe and reliable operation, the SkyRise systems feature:
  • Permanent-magnet SkyMotion® machines, which are among the industry’s most energy efficient;
  • A compact, reliable and energy-efficient E2 intelligent control system that employs Otis’ patented motion-control algorithm to ensure a smooth ride;
  • The latest iteration of the company’s pioneering ReGen® regenerative drives, which reduce energy usage by as much as 75% compared to conventional systems with non-regenerative drive systems; and
  • Q-frame cab and aerodynamic shroud technology, developed using computational fluid dynamics and wind tunnel tests to ensure a smooth, quiet ride.
• Five Gen3 elevators: New Bund Center was the first deployment in China for the new, connected Otis Gen3 elevator system. Based on the proven design of Otis’ best-selling Gen2 elevators, the Gen3 includes the built-in connectivity of the Otis ONE IoT digital platform. The Gen3 was also designed to enhance passenger safety, health and well-being through its Otis Cab Air Purifier and UV-C Lighting and a range of touchless technologies.
• Otis provided eight (four Link™, four 515 NPE) refined, yet durable escalators to the New Bund Center; two serve the lobby floors, two serve upper floors and four serve the basement levels. The escalators feature unique rectangular steel-tube trusses for enhanced rigidity with seal welds to protect from internal corrosion. Link escalators are monitored for more than 50 critical safety features during manufacturing and go through rigorous testing to ensure longer operation. As such, they are easier to service and maintain.
• Otis ONE IoT real-time monitoring platform for improved uptime and around-the-clock reliability.
• Compass 360 intelligent destination-dispatch system for faster and more efficient passenger journeys.
• Otis Integrated Dispatch enabling a fleet of service robots to travel between floors for contactless delivery.

On-Time Installation

Otis installation teams worked day and night to meet the project’s tight construction schedules. Crews faced hoisting difficulties as the use of cranes on-site was limited. They also had to maneuver carefully through narrow passages when installing escalators. A pulley system was used to hoist escalator parts and sections to the 37th floor for assembly and installation. In the high-rise elevator installation, Otis crews had to overcome the “chimney effect” or “stack effect,” a naturally induced powerful driver of airflow through the hoistway.

Around-the-Clock Reliability

The New Bund Center was created to attract premium tenants with high standards and specific requirements. This includes many businesses with the need for 24-h access to their office spaces. With this in mind, Otis provides around-the-clock service to help ensure constant uptime.

The Otis ONE IoT platform monitors elevator operations in real-time and supports predictive maintenance to minimize downtime. Otis ONE connects the elevator to the cloud to give mechanics and building managers insight into equipment status at all times. If a malfunction or potential problem is detected, the system will alert the on-call service professionals to promptly fix the issue. Otis has dedicated mechanics on-site at the New Bund Center for two and, sometimes, three shifts throughout each day.

Faster and More Efficient Journeys

Passengers at the New Bund Center reach their destinations faster and more efficiently with the help of Compass 360, Otis’ intelligent dispatching system, which automatically adjusts elevator operations to reduce passenger waiting time in peak hours and ensure the right elevator banks and floors are served for people working during off-peak hours.

Compass 360 serves as a virtual concierge, directing passengers to the most appropriate elevator via easy-to-use and intuitive wall-mounted screens. The Compass 360 system knows where people are going before they enter the elevator and uses SmartGrouping™ technology to get them to their destination as much as 50% faster than conventional dispatching systems — with less waiting time, less crowding and fewer stops along the way. New features include an improved dispatching algorithm, enhanced cybersecurity and new security reader options. Improved screens are touch-sensitive and have a one-piece glass face.

Support for Service Robots

Befitting the New Bund Center’s high level of quality service, Otis enabled the integration of more than 10 service robots into the elevator system to allow the robots to autonomously travel between floors for contactless customer deliveries. The use of service robots is trending across China in offices, hotels, hospitals and other locations, particularly after the pandemic. Until now, service robots required a physical hard-wired and programmed solution to interface with an elevator. This can be cost and labor intensive to install and allows access to only one elevator per integration. This limits the capabilities and mobility of the robot.

Otis Integrated Dispatch doesn’t require this hard-wired approach. Instead, communication between Otis elevators and the robot system is done in the cloud or locally via an on-premises version of the API. All communication is encrypted for security. This approach provides two major benefits compared to conventional hard-wired integrations:

1. As a software-based solution, the Otis Integrated Dispatch API can be improved via over-the-air updates with new features for increased flexibility in how a robot can use our elevators.
2. Otis Integrated Dispatch works at the elevator group or bank level, increasing efficiency by making any or all elevators in the bank available for the robots to use. It also offers more flexibility to add more robots in the building — even different models from various robot providers.

With such an iconic high-rise building, situated in a premium locale and serving as a model of smart building deployment, it was critical that Otis provide a transportation system that incorporated the latest product, service and technology innovations, allowing it to live up to the high standards of the entire area. Otis’ systems and technologies integrated into New Bund Center helped to elevate it as a smart building deployment and reinforced the role of the VT sector in smart cities of the future.