71 Fenchurch Street
The objective of this project was to modernise eight scenic passenger lifts designed by Richard Rogers architect. The client had ongoing experienced issues of reliability and water ingress since installation. Normally, this would not be so much of an issue, however the building is one of the most iconic listed buildings in London. 71 Fenchurch Street also holds design rights from the architect, so any required change needed to be aesthetically the same, but functionally address the issue of the user.
Challenges
- Water ingress into lift
- Reliability of lifts due to the call stations being out of service due to water
- To operate the lifts during full occupation whilst the lifts are modernised
- To raise the health and safety standard on the lifts to current standards
The scope of work was to modernise the lifts. This meant introducing more reliability and more importantly removing the design issues that had become single points of failure on the lift group. The building has what is called wet and dry zones. The lobby area is a dry zone, however after thorough investigation it was apparent that the wet zone and bespoke lift cars’ wiring was suffering badly from water ingress. Unfortunately, the wiring and lift cars fall in a tourist area and have various architectural rights on them
How were the uncertainties overcome By The Lift Consultancy?
- The Lift Consultancy carried out an in-depth initial investigation of technology currently available, both online and in consultation with specialists and contractors, testing a variety of potential methods
- A feasibility report examining the relative success of different methods and the further development required to reach a workable solution.
- Preparation of existing schematics to uncover potential locations and solutions to resolve the wiring interface issue
- Extensive research and design work went into reviewing the type of door operators available. However the type that existed needed to be altered to suit the environment and to have the operation backed by twin motors to ensure ongoing reliability in harsh winter conditions
- Developing a method to remove the old equipment and install the new. When built, there wasn’t created a plant replacement strategy, so access and egress would be from a 13th storey motor room which is open to the elements. It required the design to cope with extreme weather conditions and the environment to be reviewed at the same time, introducing cooling and heating for the extreme weather ranges.
- Redeveloping new techniques to remove the need to scaffold a point of interest building so that the works could be carried out safely.
