Otis Brazil Completes One of Largest Modernization in Its History

Otis Brazil announced on January 11 it completed the modernization of 13 elevators at the iconic Birmann 21 building in São Paulo, Brazil, described by Otis Sales and Marketing Director for Latin America Fernando Peiter as “one of the largest modernizations in the history of Otis Brazil.” Completed in 36 months, the project included installation of the fastest elevators in the country: Otis SkyRise^TM units that travel at 7 m/s. The project also involved replacement of cables, motors, signaling, call buttons and doors. For the first time in Brazil, Otis installed its Compass^® 360 destination-dispatch system, integrating the elevator system with the tower’s access system at the beginning of the project while the original elevators still operated. Of the total elevators modernized, 11 are SkyRise units, Otis’ most advanced high-rise elevator. One existing elevator had its aesthetics and controls modernized with the Flex Drive solution, and the other was completely replaced with a machine-room-less Gen2^® elevator. The new elevator system uses 70% less energy than the previous system. Otis manufactured and installed the original elevators when the 27-story Birmann 21 opened in 1998 and has maintained them ever since.