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Rise Of Residential Towers


htownbro

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Maybe it's this week's 9/11 anniversary, maybe I just watched Towering Inferno too many times as a kid, but I've never wanted to work high up in a highrise, let alone live in one. Travel safety experts recommend requesting a room between the 2nd and 7th floor, because the 7th is the highest ladder trucks can reach. And that's just for places you might be sleeping a few nights out of the year. Living dozens of floors  up full time, no thank you.

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Just the inconvenience of a 40 floor elevator ride (down and back up) to take the dog out to pee at night might squelch my desire to live in a high-rise. I once worked on the 37th floor of a building. The elevator trip from the ground floor to the 37th took 65 seconds if there were no stops. That doesn't sound like much but include maybe 6-8 stops per trip and consider how much time that might involve over a week.

 

I wouldn't be too worried about getting out of a burning high-rise (modern codes in the US ensure the egress routes are very safe) except that my knees would make descending 39 flights of stairs a slow and painful event.

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It's interesting to see where things pop up as alternatives to respond to changes.  We may be to a point where there are a critical mass of folks that prefer the tradeoffs of a high rise instead of those of a commute.  Depending on your situation, it is certainly compelling, but they sure are expensive.  

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I have lived as high as the 25th floor in a building and worked as high as the 22nd floor in another.  I now live on the 8th floor of yet another building, which is about as high as I'd like to be.  That's high enough to have a view, but still low enough that its not too bad taking the stairs to go down when the fire alarm goes off.  What I really hate is that when the fire alarm goes off, its usually in the middle of the night.  The alarms have all been either malfunctions or due to the smoke detector going off in someone's kitchen. 

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On 9/17/2018 at 8:14 AM, Specwriter said:

Just the inconvenience of a 40 floor elevator ride (down and back up) to take the dog out to pee at night might squelch my desire to live in a high-rise. I once worked on the 37th floor of a building. The elevator trip from the ground floor to the 37th took 65 seconds if there were no stops. That doesn't sound like much but include maybe 6-8 stops per trip and consider how much time that might involve over a week.

 

I wouldn't be too worried about getting out of a burning high-rise (modern codes in the US ensure the egress routes are very safe) except that my knees would make descending 39 flights of stairs a slow and painful event.

 

Elevator waits are really the annoying part. I live on the 18th floor and a few weeks ago, all but a single elevator stopped working. That was a fun day for me and the rest of the residents. 

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On 9/17/2018 at 8:14 AM, Specwriter said:

The elevator trip from the ground floor to the 37th took 65 seconds if there were no stops. That doesn't sound like much but include maybe 6-8 stops per trip and consider how much time that might involve over a week.

 

That is a pretty slow elevator.  

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On 9/24/2018 at 2:49 PM, kbates2 said:

 

That is a pretty slow elevator.  

Not really. That distance is about 500 feet and 500 ft./min. was the norm for that type of elevator in that building at that time. The building opened in 1983.

 

Things have improved though with elevator speed. Currently the Schindler 7000 high-rise has a range from 500 to 1600 feet per minute. Believe me (I'm an architect and I've been in a lot of elevators) you will certainly get a sensation of acceleration and speed going from zero to 1600 feet per minute. :)

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OK, so the point is though that the elevator rides in the new high rises are very unlikely to take as long as the ride mentioned so hopefully that won't be quite as much of an issue.  I have been in some of the super fast ones as well and you definitely can feel them flying.

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This is my best part of article:

"Two of the tallest five buildings to go up in Houston since 2000 are residential, according to Yardi Systems. The apartment buildings are downtown's Market Square Tower and 2929 Weslayan near the River Oaks neighborhood. The newest office towers are the 48-story 609 Main, 46-story 811 Main and 40-story 1500 Louisiana."

 

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, kbates2 said:

OK, so the point is though that the elevator rides in the new high rises are very unlikely to take as long as the ride mentioned so hopefully that won't be quite as much of an issue.  I have been in some of the super fast ones as well and you definitely can feel them flying.

 A direct trip from any one floor to the ground level would not take long at all even in a 40 story building but if the elevator had to make several stops along the way the time would increase dramatically. This is most likely in an office building at the start or end of the work day or during lunch time. It is probably not an issue in a residential tower since the coming-and-going would be more spread out. Residents "trickle" in or out of their apartments over an extended period of time whereas office workers have a generally shorter arrival and departure window. Consider the similarity of a residential parking garage versus an office parking garage to the elevators in those buildings.

 

One other thing, the super fast elevators are usually intended for those that make the jump directly from the ground floor to a much higher floor like the 40th. Their higher speed capability would be wasted on an elevator that starts on the ground floor and may make stops on the first 20 floors for example. I am in awe of our elevator consultants who can figure out how many cars are needed for a certain size building and how they should be deployed within the building. Of course, now there are now algorithms to help with the programming. My current office building has 48 floors and three banks of five elevators each. Each bank of five serves a set group of floors.

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What always throws me off is the buildings with elevator changes for like one or two penthouse floors.  I work in One Allen and there are three general elevator banks.  The highest levels go from floor 25 - 33 and then you have to change elevators to go up to 34.

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