Recently I have seen more and more competitions are designing very fancy highrises. By looking at their massing, I think they should use angled elevator shaft. Personally I never designed one like it, but I know it is feasible. San louis big arch and CCTV both are using it.
Is there anyone have experience designing this? How much more cost is it?
i've done an outdoor angled lift (aka, funicular). it's not cheap, but also not too crazy expensive.
indoors, with all of the additional safety stuff? i don't know about the expense. the building proposed here in louisville by REX is supposed to have one.
Yes, it's called <drum-roll> a wheelchair lift (for up) and a laundry chute (for down)!!
Two standard types of elevators are electric-traction and hydraulic. The former has over a 150 year history, the later a mere 120. Over the years both types have achieved an incredible level of maturity in both design and performance. Neither type would be very useful in an angled situation.
I strongly suggest talking to a local Vertical Transportation Consultant. They can fill you in on latest advancements in the field. For instance, highly computerized "intelligent" systems are all the rage these days. They have button-less interfaces that rely on user access card to to achieve amazing efficiencies of moving large volumes of people at peak-hours.
ASME A17.1, Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators is the document that governs elevator design. Safety is of utmost importance, and regular maintenance is THE way of achieving that. The way it works in the real world is that the building owner will sign a multi-year contract with a maintenance company (sometimes licensed by the manufacturer). Such company will have vast experience with all kinds of elevator types, except for yours...
Yours will be a weird custom ski lift-San Francisco trolley Frankenstein that will yield very high maintenance fees, will require custom fabrications for replacement parts, and will increase the overall insurance costs while decreasing the overall efficiency of the transportation system. If your project also requires a freight elevator, you just quadrupled the number of technical issues you will have to face...
Also, elevator shafts need very strict fire ratings (probably due to 1974 movie "The Towering Inferno"). Such ratings are typically achieved through use of reinforced concrete enclosures (that also double up as structural shear walls). Try explaining to the owner that he will have to build a slanted, non-structural concrete wall, the size of the building itself, in order for you to achieve an attention grabbing modernist tower of Pizza.
There are plenty of examples of slanted conveying systems used in tourist destinations where the journey is as important as the destination. You are talking about highrises, where efficiency matters.
I am not trying to be some kind of an elevator puritan here, but of all things that are fucked-up-beyond-repair in this profession, elevator technology is the last thing on my hit-list
Hope that helps :)
Jul 13, 10 4:26 am ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
Highrise using angled elevator: reasonable?
Recently I have seen more and more competitions are designing very fancy highrises. By looking at their massing, I think they should use angled elevator shaft. Personally I never designed one like it, but I know it is feasible. San louis big arch and CCTV both are using it.
Is there anyone have experience designing this? How much more cost is it?
i've done an outdoor angled lift (aka, funicular). it's not cheap, but also not too crazy expensive.
indoors, with all of the additional safety stuff? i don't know about the expense. the building proposed here in louisville by REX is supposed to have one.
BIG was going to rock one as well...
i think i recall JP saying it wasn't that much more expensive than a normal system...
Yes, it's called <drum-roll> a wheelchair lift (for up) and a laundry chute (for down)!!
Two standard types of elevators are electric-traction and hydraulic. The former has over a 150 year history, the later a mere 120. Over the years both types have achieved an incredible level of maturity in both design and performance. Neither type would be very useful in an angled situation.
I strongly suggest talking to a local Vertical Transportation Consultant. They can fill you in on latest advancements in the field. For instance, highly computerized "intelligent" systems are all the rage these days. They have button-less interfaces that rely on user access card to to achieve amazing efficiencies of moving large volumes of people at peak-hours.
ASME A17.1, Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators is the document that governs elevator design. Safety is of utmost importance, and regular maintenance is THE way of achieving that. The way it works in the real world is that the building owner will sign a multi-year contract with a maintenance company (sometimes licensed by the manufacturer). Such company will have vast experience with all kinds of elevator types, except for yours...
Yours will be a weird custom ski lift-San Francisco trolley Frankenstein that will yield very high maintenance fees, will require custom fabrications for replacement parts, and will increase the overall insurance costs while decreasing the overall efficiency of the transportation system. If your project also requires a freight elevator, you just quadrupled the number of technical issues you will have to face...
Also, elevator shafts need very strict fire ratings (probably due to 1974 movie "The Towering Inferno"). Such ratings are typically achieved through use of reinforced concrete enclosures (that also double up as structural shear walls). Try explaining to the owner that he will have to build a slanted, non-structural concrete wall, the size of the building itself, in order for you to achieve an attention grabbing modernist tower of Pizza.
There are plenty of examples of slanted conveying systems used in tourist destinations where the journey is as important as the destination. You are talking about highrises, where efficiency matters.
I am not trying to be some kind of an elevator puritan here, but of all things that are fucked-up-beyond-repair in this profession, elevator technology is the last thing on my hit-list
Hope that helps :)
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.