The L’Altra Sede

ThyssenKrupp Elevator Italia equipped this Italian building with advanced vertical-transportation technology capable of moving 350,000 people through the complex each year.

Milan, Italy’s Lombardy region headquarters, known as L’Altra Sede, is the first public building of its kind constructed in the city since 1450, when Castello Sforzesco was erected. Designed by the international consor-tium of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners from New York and Caputo Partnership and Sistema Duemila of Milan, the edifice aims to represent excellence in archi-tecture, ecology, comfort, functionality and technology. Standing at 161 m tall with 39 floors and four sinusoidal buildings, each 45 m tall, L’Altra Sede Elevator motor hoisted 149 m in the air required advanced vertical-transportation technology to move 350,000 people through the complex each year.

ThyssenKrupp Elevator Italia was responsible for supplying and instal ling all the ele-vator systems for the building’s central tower and sinusoidal buildings. To meet speed and traffic requirements needed for efficient transportation in the tower, ThyssenKrupp provided one freight elevator and eight electric machine-room-less (MRL) high-speed elevators, each with a 24-person (1800 kg) capacity with the following characteristics:

• Six MRL elevators capable of traveling at speeds of 7 mps, one with a 109.8-m travel height (28 land ings) and another with 114.9-m travel height (27 landings)
• Two MRL elevators capable of traveling at speeds of 8 mps with a 150.9-m travel height (38 landings)
• One freight elevator with a load capacity of 2500 kg, travel height of 150.9 m (37 landings) and travel speed of 2.5 mps

The elevators were equipped with destination selection control (DSC), which opti-mizes passenger traffic flow even during rush hour (ensuring the circulation of 874 people every five minutes). The DSC not only registers the desired travel direction when a call is entered, but also the floor destinations desired by the passenger. The benefit is that the control has twice as much information available. Based on the data, the con-trol can select which elevator can best serve the respective call, so no additional car commands are needed. This greatly reduces the number of intermediate stops and empty trips, thereby increasing elevator availability and service capacity up to 30%.

L’Altra Sede’s sinusoidal buildings house offices and meeting spaces that receive high volumes of daily traffic. To properly handle traffic needs, while being able to facil-itate maintenance operations, ThyssenKrupp also supplied the following:

• Nineteen MRL elevators with a capacity for 24 people (1800 kg), travel speed of 2 mps and variable travel height between 34.15 m and 39.25 m
• Four freight elevators with a 2500-kg load, travel height of 44.1 m and travel speeds of 1 mps

For the installation, ThyssenKrupp had to raise the elevators to a height of 149 m to position them inside the shaft. It also uti-lized laser alignment of guide rails. The measuring system Plumbline Gauge PG3 is an arrangement of sensors and a controller that gauge the alignment of elevator guide rails to a reference. This reference is realized by two tensed wires accurately plumbed. During measurement, the wires are clamped between fixed top and bottom points in the shaft. A mechanical installation system consisting of mobile platforms also helped ensure a deviance of less than 1 mm.

Cabin interiors con sist of pearl green glass for the walls, gray stone floors, stainless-steel ceilings and LED lighting that reduces energy con sumption by up to 90%. Freight elevators received stain-less-steel walls and embossed anti-slip aluminum floors.

Work on the building began in October 2008. By May 2009, the elevators had arrived and were completely installed by Jan-uary 2010, when Roberto Formigone, the Lombardy region pres-ident, inaugurated the complex.

Formigone commented on the building:

“L’Altra Sede is an innovative project that reflects the relationship between the people and the public administration; it is a lumi-nous and transparent building that joins the different realities of the Lombardy region: water, nature, landscape and culture.”