Sure, high-tech office buildings are great, but have you ever ridden in a state-of-the-art elevator? Today’s state-of-the-art elevator systems are often highly personalized, fast, and provide the user with the ultimate destination. Provides seamless movement to. Office and apartment buildings are becoming increasingly highly digital and even use AI, a huge step up from the basic elevators that have been commonly found in buildings for decades. With the rise of hybrid and remote work, today’s workplaces are embracing flexibility, sustainability, and technology integration, and recent innovations in elevator technology represent another way the modern office is evolving. I am.
Visit the Omniturum Tower in Frankfurt, Germany. Developed by Tishmann Speyer Properties and designed by Bjarke Ingels firm BIG, the mixed-use skyscraper features eight floors of residential apartments sandwiched between 30 floors of office space. The central residential section is called “hip-swinging” because of how the building’s helical axis moves, allowing for terraces in some apartments between the 14th and 23rd floors. The Omniturm was completed in 2019 and is one of the tallest buildings in Frankfurt and Germany, attracting attention not only for its size and unique design, but also for its innovative elevator system. The tower’s eight elevators, designed by Schindler Group, are state-of-the-art, offering a high level of customization, efficiency, and seamless movement throughout. The Omniturum was one of the first buildings in which Schindler installed an elevator with a destination control port, but it was also the building installed in conjunction with the Schindler PORT 4D. The company’s PORT 4D technology, first introduced in 2021, reduces travel times through a smartphone app that connects to the elevator system. According to Schindler, this technology can reduce the elevator group’s energy consumption by up to 40 percent.
Here’s how it works: If a visitor wants to go to the top floor of a building, Schindler’s PORT algorithm provides that passenger with the fastest elevator to the roof. This means fewer passengers and fewer stops along the way. “This is the link between horizontal and vertical transport,” says Sebastian Raag, Head of Digital Solutions at Schindler Group’s Large Projects Center Europe North. A visitor or resident of an apartment in the building can use a smartphone to initiate a journey through one of the system’s ports, which are equipped in every apartment. All access points from point A to point B open automatically as follows: They arrive from elevators to offices, residences, and even doors to underground parking garages. Schindler’s technology has evolved since the early 1990s, when he was developing a system to optimize elevator travel times. Now, the company’s technology can uniquely identify every elevator call using his ID interface, helping make elevators more accessible. For example, if a wheelchair user requests an elevator, the system knows to send her a larger elevator cabin with doors that open at a slower speed. For office buildings with a large number of international visitors or residents, speakers and announcements in elevators can be customized to a different language.
But Omniturum is not alone. Leading elevator companies are pushing the boundaries and developing intelligent solutions to meet the demands of the new age of offices. In 2017, ThyssenKrupp became the first elevator company to retrofit existing elevators to achieve net zero energy. Engineers were able to achieve their goal by testing a car that generates energy and puts power back into the grid. Importantly, energy was saved both when the elevator was running and when it was stopped. “We actually produce more energy than we consume,” says Thyssenkrupp’s Brad Nemeth. Most recently, international engineering firm TK Elevator (TKE) opened his $200 million tower in Atlanta, which will serve as its North American headquarters and testing ground for new elevator and escalator technology. As part of the experiment, the company’s engineers are able to use a test shaft in the building to bring the elevator down at full speed. The test tower will be equipped with North America’s first ropeless lateral movement elevator system called MULTI. The system uses a network of magnet systems that allow the elevator to be suspended in the air, closely mirroring the technology that allows bullet trains to hover. “Everything about this building here in Atlanta is about defining and advancing the future of the elevator industry,” said John Clareen of TKE. “And it’s not just the local elevator industry here in Atlanta. It’s worldwide.”
Data on how many office and residential buildings have state-of-the-art elevators is difficult to find. But there are several recently completed buildings with elevator systems with high-tech features like Schindler’s, proof that developers are interested in upping their elevator game. For example, One Vanderbilt, the towering office building next to Grand Central Terminal that opened in midtown Manhattan in fall 2020, features a Schindler elevator system that, among other things, takes visitors from the lobby to the building’s observation deck, Summit. I’ll take you to his one. within 50 seconds. The tower has three of his Schindler 9300 escalators and 36 Schindler 7000 elevators, 32 of which are equipped with his PORT technology, including one of his two-story elevators. In addition, One Vanderbilt’s elevators are equipped with regenerative drives that recover electricity while in motion. That energy is fed back into the building’s power grid, reducing elevator energy consumption and saving up to 30% in costs.
Chicago’s Salesforce Tower, a 60-story office building with 1.2 million square feet, also opened in 2020. The building features Otis elevator technology, including two SkyRise service elevators and 24 SkyRise passenger elevators, and is equipped with destination dispatch technology. touch experience.
As office buildings evolve, so do elevator systems. These are some of the technologies that are notoriously slow to change and advance, but the focus on touchless surfaces and safer indoor environments during the pandemic has accelerated further innovation. There is no doubt that the oft-discussed flight to quality and competitiveness in the office market and the emphasis on accessibility are having an impact as well. Office developers are increasingly designing buildings with a focus on the tenant experience, and while building occupants will no doubt not spend most of their day in an elevator, they are still designing buildings with a focus on the look, feel, and functionality of their buildings. is expected to improve as well. Also attracting attention as an office space. Innovative new technology from Schindler and other major elevator companies shows that progress is being made in the elevator space to meet the demands of a new era of offices. By leveraging these advances, building owners can create flexible, sustainable, user-centric workspaces that can attract and retain talent in an increasingly competitive market.