Interesting elevators
Dec 4, 2000 | 7:05 pm
#46
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 3,511
PremEx: As per the Tower of Terror, apparently the speed of gravity was just too slow for the Disney Imagineers! 
Stimpy: Very cool about living in the Hancock Building, IMO. I was watching a special on the learning channel a couple of weeks ago about Super Skyscrapers, and they interviewed a couple who lives in a Hancock apartment. No other home will move five feet on a windy night!
I've always wondered about the apartments there. Are their designated floors that are residential, or are they spread thruout the tower?
Stimpy: Very cool about living in the Hancock Building, IMO.
I was watching a special on the learning channel a couple of weeks ago about Super Skyscrapers, and they interviewed a couple who lives in a Hancock apartment. No other home will move five feet on a windy night! I've always wondered about the apartments there. Are their designated floors that are residential, or are they spread thruout the tower?
Dec 4, 2000 | 7:37 pm
#47
Join Date: Nov 1999
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I decided to see what I could dig up about residential and the Hancock Building...
From: http://www.worldstallest.com/96/hancock.html
From: http://www.worldstallest.com/96/hancock.html
John Hancock Center is located on Chicago's "Magnificent Mile," an elegant length of Michigan Avenue which has long been famous for its smart shops, galleries, restaurants and the historic old Water Tower which survived the great Chicago fire of 1871.
The building's lower floors contain 812,000 square feet of office space. Over seven hundred apartments ranging in size from studios to four-bedrooms are located on its upper stories. Office and residential tenants are served by separate entrances and elevators, so both groups enjoy complete privacy and security. The entrance for apartment residences is on Delaware Place. Office and commercial entrances are on Michigan Avenue, Delaware Place and Chestnut Street.
Apartment dwellers step into street-level elevators and travel non-stop to the 44th floor "Sky Lobby." The Sky Lobby's amenities include a restaurant, commissary, health club, service shops and the highest above-ground swimming pool in the world (546 feet). From 44, another bank of elevators carries residents to apartments whose features include glassed-in "sky terraces" for year-around lounging in sky-high surroundings.
A resident gazing out of his living-room window on the 92nd floor (the topmost apartment level) in the John Hancock Center stands precisely 1,003 feet, 6 inches above ground. Our resident enjoys a view unequalled in any other dwelling place on earth. The same individual, if he or she works in the building, can "commute" to the office in 90 seconds.
Other features, from the concourse level through the 12th floor, include Bonwit Teller, a store in keeping with the "Magnificent Mile" tradition; a broad variety of service and retail shops; Upper Avenue National Bank; and heated indoor parking for 1,400 cars which enter and leave floors 6 through 12 via a spiral ramp.
More than 50 percent of the 104,000-square-foot site on whicch the building is located I devoted to open space. The landscaped plaza area features a skating rink in winter which serves as a reflecting pool in summer.
John Hancock Center's unique design reflects the logic of form following function. Consider the building's tapering sides, for example. Office space is most efficient and produces optimum flexibility when it is offered in large blocks. This space is thus located on the lower and larger floors of the building. Apartment dwellers wish to enjoy an exciting, high-level view of the city. In John Hancock Center, apartments begin where many building's end-at the 45th floor-and continue through the 92nd story
The building's lower floors contain 812,000 square feet of office space. Over seven hundred apartments ranging in size from studios to four-bedrooms are located on its upper stories. Office and residential tenants are served by separate entrances and elevators, so both groups enjoy complete privacy and security. The entrance for apartment residences is on Delaware Place. Office and commercial entrances are on Michigan Avenue, Delaware Place and Chestnut Street.
Apartment dwellers step into street-level elevators and travel non-stop to the 44th floor "Sky Lobby." The Sky Lobby's amenities include a restaurant, commissary, health club, service shops and the highest above-ground swimming pool in the world (546 feet). From 44, another bank of elevators carries residents to apartments whose features include glassed-in "sky terraces" for year-around lounging in sky-high surroundings.
A resident gazing out of his living-room window on the 92nd floor (the topmost apartment level) in the John Hancock Center stands precisely 1,003 feet, 6 inches above ground. Our resident enjoys a view unequalled in any other dwelling place on earth. The same individual, if he or she works in the building, can "commute" to the office in 90 seconds.
Other features, from the concourse level through the 12th floor, include Bonwit Teller, a store in keeping with the "Magnificent Mile" tradition; a broad variety of service and retail shops; Upper Avenue National Bank; and heated indoor parking for 1,400 cars which enter and leave floors 6 through 12 via a spiral ramp.
More than 50 percent of the 104,000-square-foot site on whicch the building is located I devoted to open space. The landscaped plaza area features a skating rink in winter which serves as a reflecting pool in summer.
John Hancock Center's unique design reflects the logic of form following function. Consider the building's tapering sides, for example. Office space is most efficient and produces optimum flexibility when it is offered in large blocks. This space is thus located on the lower and larger floors of the building. Apartment dwellers wish to enjoy an exciting, high-level view of the city. In John Hancock Center, apartments begin where many building's end-at the 45th floor-and continue through the 92nd story
Dec 5, 2000 | 7:04 am
#48
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In the antique category : Hotel Polana, Maputo, Mozambique. With operator. I'm not sure the elevator survived the recent renovation of the hotel unscathed. The operator probably did, although he may no longer be employed in his original capacity.
The police headquarters in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) had a paternoster, which I believe also fell victim to a renovation.
johan
The police headquarters in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) had a paternoster, which I believe also fell victim to a renovation.
johan
Dec 5, 2000 | 12:37 pm
#49
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The Hancock condos go from 45 to about 92 with our lobby on the 44th. Also on 44 is our private grocery store, swimming pool and health club. 94 is the French restaurant and 95 is the view bar. Below 44 are offices for let.
Dec 6, 2000 | 6:05 pm
#51
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Originally posted by stimpy:
If those Pasternosters are the small platforms that you hop on and off of as they move up and down, then yes I've been on one a couple of years ago in Munich at the Siemens building and I think one in Antwerp at the Alcatel building. They would be a lawsuit waiting to happen in the U.S.
If those Pasternosters are the small platforms that you hop on and off of as they move up and down, then yes I've been on one a couple of years ago in Munich at the Siemens building and I think one in Antwerp at the Alcatel building. They would be a lawsuit waiting to happen in the U.S.
And yes, there were accidents. Most caused by stupidity - in some cases from people scrambling to get out because of the false belief that the "little cubicle" in which one was lifted or lowered actually turned over when it reached the top or bottom. (It doesn't - picture an endless chain-link belt with the cubicle attached at its top to the axle of the link itself; as the belt rotates the cubicle travels alongside the belt and pivots on the connection to the axle when the link reaches top or bottom. Thus the "bottom" of the cubicle remains the floor no matter whether the cubicle is going up or down, and it is completely safe to ride "around" the cycle. The powers that be finally had to post signs in the cubicles saying it was safe to ride them around.)
But the most fascinating thing about the Farben Building, if what I was told is true, is the rotunda (which was used as a cafeteria when the building was V Corps Headquarters in the 1960s and 1970s at least). When the Farben Building was built, circa 1925 IIRC, the domed interior ceiling of the rotunda was covered with a thin layer of one of the most precious metals then known to man. Guess what it was.
Mar 14, 2004 | 11:30 pm
#52
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Guess what it was.
</font>
</font>
[This message has been edited by yevlesh2 (edited Mar 14, 2004).]
Mar 15, 2004 | 3:01 am
#54
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I used to ride in one of those Pater Nosters a few years ago, I know there are still one or two in use, but can't remember where. As I was trying to find out more I stumbled on this:
http://www.camblog.com/blog.php?admin=browse&blog=3
I think that one is in Dublin.
http://www.camblog.com/blog.php?admin=browse&blog=3
I think that one is in Dublin.
Mar 15, 2004 | 3:47 am
#55
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I've been in many (we call them lifts over here) in coal mines in the UK and elsewhere. There are some substantial engineering feats there, including double-decker cars.
Some descend more than 2,000 feet, and as they do not have proper doors, only mesh screens, the air pressure is immense as you rush down. The head house that contains the machinery is usually the tallest structure for miles around.
I've also had to go in ones which are not yet completed, where we were let down the mine shaft in a bucket. Going down 2,000 feet in one of those, with no lights (we had out miners lamps on our helmets, of course) is something else. So is getting in/out of the bucket at the top, with the 2,000 foot drop beneath you as you clamber across.
Some descend more than 2,000 feet, and as they do not have proper doors, only mesh screens, the air pressure is immense as you rush down. The head house that contains the machinery is usually the tallest structure for miles around.
I've also had to go in ones which are not yet completed, where we were let down the mine shaft in a bucket. Going down 2,000 feet in one of those, with no lights (we had out miners lamps on our helmets, of course) is something else. So is getting in/out of the bucket at the top, with the 2,000 foot drop beneath you as you clamber across.
Mar 15, 2004 | 3:23 pm
#56
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 3,673
High speed elevators (>8m/s) are technically interesting, and quite different from normal elevators. Some of their features:
- direct drive motors (gearless)
- double wall construction for soundproofing
- aerodynamic fairings at top and bottom to reduce wind noise
- ceramic brake shoes to cope with high kinetic energy (which increases as a square function of velocity)
- sealed doors
- various vibration-reducing devices
The current fastest elevator, Toshiba's 1010m/min model in the 509m tall Taipei 101 building, is the first to feature an atmospheric pressure control system, a feature I would have welcomed when I rode Mitsubishi's 750m/min then-fastest version in the Yokohama Landmark tower. Something tells me I wouldn't enjoy a ride down WHBM's mine shaft!
In case of failure, the Taipei 101's elevators have an oil damper with a 6m stroke, capable of handling a cab descending at the full 600m/min rate; 4m stroke in the Landmark tower.
At the other end of the scale, I recall the janitor's fully manual and jealously guarded elevator in my New England high school dorm
- direct drive motors (gearless)
- double wall construction for soundproofing
- aerodynamic fairings at top and bottom to reduce wind noise
- ceramic brake shoes to cope with high kinetic energy (which increases as a square function of velocity)
- sealed doors
- various vibration-reducing devices
The current fastest elevator, Toshiba's 1010m/min model in the 509m tall Taipei 101 building, is the first to feature an atmospheric pressure control system, a feature I would have welcomed when I rode Mitsubishi's 750m/min then-fastest version in the Yokohama Landmark tower. Something tells me I wouldn't enjoy a ride down WHBM's mine shaft!
In case of failure, the Taipei 101's elevators have an oil damper with a 6m stroke, capable of handling a cab descending at the full 600m/min rate; 4m stroke in the Landmark tower.
At the other end of the scale, I recall the janitor's fully manual and jealously guarded elevator in my New England high school dorm
Mar 15, 2004 | 3:36 pm
#57
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by monahos:
Something tells me I wouldn't enjoy a ride down WHBM's mine shaft!</font>
Something tells me I wouldn't enjoy a ride down WHBM's mine shaft!</font>
Mar 15, 2004 | 3:49 pm
#58
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Washington Monument
Looking at all the plaques on the inside wall as you descend from the viewing platform
also, does anyone else look down the gap between the elevator and the floor?
Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, that building scares the bejesus out of me, I was fine about going up and came down and my Mum told me how scared she was and now I am slightly afraid to go up it 
Looking at all the plaques on the inside wall as you descend from the viewing platform
also, does anyone else look down the gap between the elevator and the floor?
Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, that building scares the bejesus out of me, I was fine about going up and came down and my Mum told me how scared she was and now I am slightly afraid to go up it
Mar 15, 2004 | 3:49 pm
#59
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Now no one would believe you could have an elevator that you could sail a sizeable boat into, be taken up 50 feet, and then sail out into a canal at a higher level. That's just ridiculous!
Anderton Boat Lift
Anderton Boat Lift
Mar 15, 2004 | 3:51 pm
#60
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by UAL Traveler:
On the west side of the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok you'll find twin fast glass elevators (when they are working). What is interesting is that they start in an atrium, and then blast through the roof and emerge outside the hotel on an express run to the 31st floor. </font>
On the west side of the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok you'll find twin fast glass elevators (when they are working). What is interesting is that they start in an atrium, and then blast through the roof and emerge outside the hotel on an express run to the 31st floor. </font>