Elevators On Microsoft Campus Now Have thyssenkrupp MAX

Elevator World

thyssenkrupp’s predictive-maintenance technology MAX has been installed in 69 elevators at Microsoft’s 8-million-sq.-ft. corporate headquarters campus in Redmond, Washington, thyssenkrupp announced. The technology was implemented to meet what thyssenkrupp describes as the escalating transportation demands on the 337-elevator system, which moves more than 50,000 people daily and is overseen by three full-time technicians. thyssenkrupp stated: “Powered by Microsoft’s Azure machine-learning platform, MAX’s connectivity enables Microsoft’s real-estate group, CBRE, to monitor all elevator functions, including operating speed and capacity, as well as individual components. . . supporting smarter management of the building-transportation system.” Ed Voll, founder and chief operating officer of Vertical Systems Analysis (VSA), a New York City (NYC)-headquartered elevator and escalator engineering and consulting firm with offices in Philadelphia, Miami and Chicago, announced the appointment of project managers Brian Meridth and Chuck Wickner. Meridth has been in the industry for 18 years and specializes in elevator modernization. He began his career as an apprentice with the International Union of Elevator Constructors in Los Angeles, moving on to a supervisor position with Schindler. After that, Meridth became a modernization superintendent with KONE, working on large projects with The Irvine Co., one of California's largest developers. In the industry nearly three decades, Wickner specializes in elevator modernization in NYC. Prior to joining VSA, he supervised and managed many high-profile NYC projects, notably a US$17-million undertaking with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to modernize 17 elevators in lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. Sidewalk Labs LLC, a unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., is considering wood construction for tall buildings in Quayside, a 4.9-ha "city of the future" on Toronto's waterfront, Bloomberg reports. If the plan comes to fruition, it would be the largest development yet built with tall-timber technology, a high-rise construction method that uses laminated wood in the place of steel and concrete. Proponents say it is just as strong and fire-resistant as traditional building materials and is more environmentally friendly, cheaper and faster to erect. Quayside would include about 3,000 residential units in buildings as tall as 50 stories, but Sidewalk Labs must first persuade officials to change the building codes — Toronto regulations limit wood-construction buildings to six floors, though that is expected to double to 12 by 2021. A petition campaign is underway in the Norwood neighborhood of Bronx, New York, aimed at getting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to install an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant elevator at the Mosholu Parkway 4 train station, Norwood News reports. The effort is being led by Eric Dinowitz, a special-education teacher who has an eye on the Norwood City Council seat. The MTA board plans to meet on September 26 to discuss which five stations will receive elevators as part of a US$200-million addition to its 2015-2019 capital budget that aims to address the system’s often-criticized inaccessibility. Abutting a business improvement district, Mosuolu Parkway station is close to two hospitals, several housing developments and a high school. Architecture firm Aedas drew inspiration from the idea of a loop for its four-tower plan for China Railway Construction Corp. (CRCC) featuring a vegetated, winding skybridge connecting all four buildings in Zhuhai, China, in the Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong, various news outlets, including designboom, report. Scheduled for completion by 2022, Hengqin CRCC Plaza is set to have more than 200,000 m2 of space, with one tower serving as a headquarters, and the other three housing leasable office space. Heights were not given but appear from renderings to be considerable. Image: Wikipedia (public domain)