Much to the delight of Jakob Zueger, chief executive officer of Schindler Americas, a $40 million contract has been awarded the company in an effort to put into placement effective solutions for the modernization of LA International Airport.

Jakob Zueger was stated as saying, “We are proud to have been chosen as the supplier of the equipment for the LAX rejuvenation and look forward to working with Los Angeles World Airports on this vital project.”

What will the $40 million contracted to Schindler be used for?

In addition to the 70 escalators, elevators, and moving walks that will be supplied by the company, Schindler will use the money to remove and replace four moving walks, modernize and update six hydraulic passenger elevators, as well as replace 60 escalators.

This major modernization overhaul at LA International Airport will also include new gates that will easily accommodate the Airbus A380; a refurbishing of the Main Tom Bradley International Terminal; as well as the airport’s own terminals.

All in all, a total of 28 elevators, moving walks, and escalators will eventually be updated and modernized at LAX.

The Schindler Group was no doubt chosen due to their extensive tract record.

Labeled as a leading global mobility provider, Schindler can be found in more than 140 countries; provides mobility in many of the world’s public transport networks and major airports; and has found success in their most recent contracts which include Germany’s recent Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, as well as a new subway system for Mumbai, India.

An avid supporter of sustainable urban development, Schindler provides its clients with reliable, safe, and ecologically sound mobility solutions, this Switzerland based company designs, installs, manufactures, modernizes, and services escalator and elevator systems for practically every building type.

A 10 year contract has been signed between KONE and ProRail for the installation and maintenance of 175 new elevators, making them partners during this duration. The contract also states that KONE is one of their two preferred suppliers for this project. Within this contract, it also defines the maintenance period as 25 years.

ProRail is in charge of the construction and maintenance of the Netherlands’s national railway network. It is also responsible for managing this railway network and ensuring its security. More than 3200 employers perform their duties to make sure that 1,200,000 passengers and 100,000 barrels of goods are transported safely and reach their destination promptly every day.

According to the Project Director of ProRail, Patrick Buck, installing these elevators is a part of their 10 year plan, namely the Accessibility Implementation Plan to enhance accessibility of their stations. He also says that these elevators would make their platforms more accessible and this in turn would make travel easier and more convenient for their travelers.

Noud Veeger, EVP and Area Director of KONE for Central and North Europe was honored that KONE was selected as one of the partners as this shows the confidence ProRail has placed on KONE. He also proceeds to mention that KONE’s strengths in installation and delivery processes, maintenance methods and solutions are the factors that led to the success of this new agreement being implemented.

Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city is to be supplied with 339 escalators and elevators for their newly developing major subway system by Schindler. The 22km Kadikoy-Kartal line would provide an important travel system for the Asian half of the city that is highly populated.

Booked last year, this contract covers 272 escalators and 67 elevators that are to be installed in the 16 stations along the Kadikoy-Kartal line. These installations are expected to be completed by the end of 2010, after which the system is to be handed over to the city officials at the end of March 2011.

The lengths of these escalators range between three and twenty meters and are constructed with special features and materials like stainless steel landing platforms and balustrades that protect the structures from the elements. While most of the doors are installed with glass balustrades, some of them have steel on one side and glass on the other side.

This new metro line would provide a transport system for their mostly populated region, namely the Asian half of the city. It would make their commute safe, clean, effective and with less delay. This line would also serve as a connection to the European side of the city, where most of the jobs are situated.

The Turkey General Manager at Schindler, Mete Zadil is pleased and honored to work with contractor Avrasya Metro Grubu on this massive transportation assignment. He believes that the Kadikoy-Kartal subway line would aid and enhance mobility and help the people gain access to occupations and services located at the other side of the Bosphorus strait.

Istanbul accounts for 27% of national GDP and has a population of 13 million. The new line being constructed is part of a major expansion project that aims to reduce congestion within Istanbul and improve their transport system. In the past, Schindler has supplied escalators for the main airport in Istanbul and for stations at another metro line that runs under the Bosphorus.

With their headquarters in Switzerland, the Schindler Group is regarded as the leading global mobility provider. Present in more than 140 countries, this company specializes in the design, manufacture, installation, service and modernization of elevator and escalator systems for almost all types of buildings. They support the sustainable urban development by providing safe, reliable and ecologically friendly mobility solutions.

Broward County prosecutors have dropped all charges against a Sunrise Florida man after reviewing an elevator surveillance tape.

22 year old Joshua Daniel Ortiz was charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer.

The incident started when Ortiz and a group of friends were getting into an elevator at 200 SW First Ave. They were heading to a parking garage after a night out when acquaintances of Ortiz’s began fighting in the lobby.

Police were called to the scene to break up the fight.

The police claim that upon arriving, Ortiz began yelling at the officers from the elevator. Officer Dereck Lade, of the Fort Lauderdale police department, said in his official report that Ortiz walked up and stood nose to nose with him. Lade said that he shoved Ortiz back, and made an attempt to take Ortiz into custody.

Lade stated that as he tried to take Ortiz into custody, Ortiz assumed a fighting stance, with both fists clenched, and his body bladed.

Ortiz ended up with a broken nose during the arrest.

The event caused many inconveniences for Ortiz. Ortiz said, “They were just sitting there watching my life go down the drain with those charges. I’ve been going crazy thinking my life is over.” The incident delayed Ortiz’s enrollment in college.

That all changed when prosecutors reviewed the tape. The surveillance footage showed 3 officers, Derek Lade, Stefan Silver, and Steve Smith, aggressively rush and beat Ortiz. The charge of felony battery was then downgraded to a misdemeanor resisting arrest charge.

Prosecutors again reviewed the tape, and dropped all charges.

Sgt. Frank Sousa, the department’s spokesperson, insisted that it was not a beat down, and said that the Fort Lauderdale Internal Affairs investigators found nothing wrong in the video, noting that no policy or procedural violations were found .

Sousa also said that the video clearly showed Ortiz making a movement toward the officers.

Ortiz said that the claims made against him by the officers were completely false, and that they were simply on a power trip.

Stephen Melnick, Ortiz’s defense attorney, said that the officers lied in their reports to justify their actions, unaware that the entire incident was being taped.

This is a tale about an encounter I had while on holiday recently. While I was relaxing at a bar, I made the acquaintance of a really cute blonde. We hit it off – when she found out that I was from Manchester, she went crazy. She loved Mancunians. We spent a couple of hours chatting and drinking, and had a really great time. When it was time to leave, I managed to convince her to walk with me – my hotel was pretty close to the bar. Turns out that stoplights are a great place to sneak a few kisses. My blonde cutie agreed.

By the time we got to the hotel, we were on fire from all the passionate kissing. We stumbled towards the elevator. This particular elevator had a clear glass back to it and you could see the entire interior of the hotel through it. The room I was staying in was on the third floor, so I pressed “3.”

When the elevator doors closed, I put my hand behind her neck, tugged at her hair and pulled her as close as possible. We started kissing again, and these kisses put all those previous kisses to shame. All of a sudden, right when it started getting really intense, the elevator pinged. We had reached the third floor, but since we were having such a good time, I hit the elevator button for floor ‘19’ – the highest floor in the hotel.

We lost ourselves in each other as the elevator chugged steadily upwards. Not only did we lose ourselves, but also we lost our ability to notice anything outside of our little kissing circle. Without our noticing, the elevator had gone up all the way to the 19th floor and back down to the lobby.

She put her leg around me and went for my neck. I leaned back to give her better access, opened my eyes a little and looked through the glass wall of the elevator. In front of us there was a security guard and three people staring at us. I started laughing, causing the blonde to cease her assault on my neck and look through the glass wall. She started laughing as well, along with the three people. However, the security guard was annoyed.

I hit the ‘3’ button and the elevator took off with us still laughing. This time, we went straight to the room. What a spectacular and hilarious night!

Everyone is reading this long and fascinating story about elevators. I enjoyed the passage on elevator etiquette Instinctively, people know how to conduct themselves when boarding an elevator. A pair of strangers gravitate to the rear corners, another stands by the door, until the fourth arrives. Then these last two cover the front corners, opening the center for the fifth and whoever follows. As more arrive, they all re-position into open space.

The goal is to block potential intimacy and strive for maximum distance. A familiar code of subway riding and urinal sharing. Looking ahead is a must, with a slight vertical motion perhaps. Mirrors amplify the feeling of awkwardness.
Silence is customary, although generic small talk and neighborly greetings are reluctantly allowed.

Reminds me of two things.

1. People facing backward in The Great Candid Camera Stunt (and those not in
the stunt following their cue, like sheep)

2.This marvelous anecdote about Alfred Hitchcock:

Of Hitchcock, my favorite memory is an incident in New York, at the St.Regis Hotel in 1964. With Hitch red-faced and cheerful, and I a bit tipsy after some frozen daiquiris, we boarded the elevator on the 25th floor, riding in silence until the 19th, whereupon three evening-attired folks entered. Suddenly, he faces me and says, “Well, it was quite shocking, I must say there was blood everywhere!” Confused, I thought because of the many daiquiris that something was amiss, but he continued his tale: “There was a stream of blood coming from his ear and another from his mouth.” Certainly, all had recognized him but nobody would look. Two more arrived as he went on: “Of course, there was a huge pool of blood on the floor and his clothes were splattered with it. Oh! It was a horrible mess. Well, you can imagine…”It was apparent that everyone had stopped breathing, including myself. Now he glanced at me, I made a silly nod, and he again continued: “Blood all around! Well, I looked at the poor fellow and I said, Good God, man, what’s happened to you?” Just then, as the elevator doors opened to the lobby, Hitchcock said “And do you know what he told me?” and paused. Reluctantly, the amazed passengers departed the elevator, anxiously staring at the director while passing in silence. After foggy moments passed, I asked, “So what did he say?” Hitch put on a beatific smile and said,  “Oh nothing–that’s just my elevator story.”

The trouble may begin when the lift doors first separate to open. There is a tightness that wells up in the chest. Fear and anxiety flood in, and the heart beats at an accelerated pace the closer one walks to the elevator. Excessive sweating commences and irrational fears may set in long before the lift doors snap closed. The idea of being trapped inside the walls of the lift becomes very real. For a person suffering the debilitating effects of elevator phobia, this scenario is a common reaction felt keenly each time a lift is within sight.

For those who suffer with the fear of lifts, life can become very difficult. Especially for those who live in a larger city, elevator phobia may become an almost daily companion. The panic attack symptoms lay just below the surface, ready to come forward in the most ordinary circumstances of life. A trip to the doctor’s surgery or any other office building may quickly become a fight for sanity and composure. Avoiding lifts altogether may work for a while, but can make it very difficult to function normally. Running into an elevator is a very common part of normal adult life. A profound elevator phobia creates difficult social and work situations, often compounding the sufferer’s anxiety all the more.

Fortunately, there are several therapies that have proven effective in the treatment of elevator phobia. Elevator phobia is very often a conditioned fear, and learning to overcome the anxious response is quite possible.

Desensitization techniques work very well as well, but take a great deal of time to prove effective. Hypnotic therapy can provide relief for sufferers. Hypnotherapy quickly removes the automatic, unpleasant response surrounding experience with lifts and replaces it with a more pleasant reaction. Neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP, works very well in combination with hypnosis. Seeking treatment for elevator phobia is the first step to living a life free of this paralyzing fear.

Mitsubishi Electric has been around for over 80 years. They have developed products that are used in space and office buildings. In 2009 the company made a group sale of 3,665.1 billion yen. They have now come up with an energy efficient elevator. The elevator will be installed in buildings starting in April.

Many businesses that reside in tall offices have been complaining about energy costs and wanted an energy efficient elevator. Mitsubishi Electric invented an elevator that will be in buildings shortly. The elevator is now being called a smart control system and can reduce energy used in offices by 10 percent. The elevator uses smart technology by prioritizing when the most people will use the elevator. It is going to have a “non-stop” feature which allows passengers to get to the floor they desire without having to stop at other floors on the way.

The elevator is going to save the most money during non-peak hours. It is going to take about 1.6 seconds more for someone to catch the elevator. That isn’t a very large number compared to how much energy is going to be saved in the long run. The elevator saves so much energy because it figures out which elevator would use the least energy to get to you and then your destination.

In the morning and afternoon (when most people are going to use the elevator) the elevator is going to run normally and isn’t going to use energy efficient methods. However, it will know that more people are going to use the elevator so it is still going to save some money by predicting how many people are going to use it.

The 1.6 added seconds isn’t a long wait time. Right now the average wait is 20 seconds so most people won’t notice a difference. However, businesses will notice a decent amount of money saved when they look at their bill. Right now there are only a couple models to choose from. Mitsubishi Electric has stated that they are going to come out with more models in the next coming years.

Mitsubishi Electric is predicted to have a higher gross income than last year and their stocks are also predicted to rise with the new technology.

It’s the ultimate fantasy. You’ve been working after hours in the offices of your company’s downtown high-rise. Finally you glance at the clock: how did it get to be so late at night? You make your way down the foyer, press the button for the lift… and, much to your surprise, it’s not empty. The other passenger is a woman with blonde hair, veiled eyes, kissable lips, a neckline that shows just enough. (Or possibly the other passenger is a tall dark handsome stranger in an Armani suit. Sexual fantasies are not solely the prerequisite of the male gender.)

She doesn’t say a word. You glance at the control panel – the lobby button is lit. Yet somehow you know it’s going to take you more than the usual fifteen seconds to get there.

Your eyes lock. She doesn’t say a word as she hits the button marked “Stop,” and reaches for your tie to pull you closer with one hand while her other hand slowly begins to unbutton her blouse…

You know the rest of that story.

Or you should. Shagging in a lift is one of the most persistent erotic fantasies, and it doesn’t always involve an anonymous encounter. For that matter, it doesn’t always involve the “Stop” button.

Maybe it’s the allure of risky behavior. You’re in a public place that because of its closed doors and the necessity of standing very close to other people is simultaneously a private space. Yet the rules of personal space don’t apply. So what rules do?

Or maybe it’s the erotic posture. Sex standing up – because in most elevators except freight elevators there really is no room to lie down, and nobody fantasizes about sex in a freight elevator (unless you’re hot for the UPS driver.)

Or maybe it’s the physical sensation of the g-force, the actualization of Newton’s Second Law: as you accelerate upwards in a lift you feel heavier; lighter as you descend. Maybe what you’re really seeking is the weightlessness of freefall but gravity dictates you must settle for love – or sex in a lift.

KONE is once again teaming up with the illustrious building team of Sorouh, Khatib & Alami, and the Arabian Construction Company to create the new Gate Towers in Abu Dabi. KONE will be supplying a total of 41 elevators to this massive and impressive series of structures, which should see completion in the latter part of 2012.

KONE has been designing world-class elevators for over 100 years. They specialize in what they call “people flow”, a term used to describe getting people where they need to be in the most effortless way possible, and with short wait times. One of the global leaders in this industry, KONE has designed and installed elevators and escalators all over the world, and creates innovative solutions for maintenance and priority placement in ways that will maximize human traffic and comfort.

The new Gate Towers will sit at the entrance of the island of Al Reem and will create an incredible new skyline. KONE will provide three different types of elevators for the buildings: 11 KONE MonoSpace Special Platforms; 27 KONE MiniSpace elevators; and 3 KONE TranSys freight elevators. There will also be an installation of 4 KONE TravelMaster escalators.

The Gate Towers will be a part of the Gate District in SHAMS. Existing Towers 3,4 and 5 are 65-storied buildings, and Tower 7 is 22-storied. The Towers have already won the prestigious Best High Rise Award by the International Residential Property Awards.

Sorouh Real Estate developed the Towers. The architects responsible for designing the unique and commanding buildings are Khatib & Alami. Construction is being handled by the Arabian Construction Company and is being overseen by Hill International, one of the world’s largest construction and consultation firms whose reputation is impeccable.

KONE has stated that they are excited and proud to be a part of the project. Their aim is to provide the most sophisticated technology and the ultimate in comfort and movement for the people who will be living and working inside these new towers. The integrity of their craftsmanship and dedication to their goal has made them world-renowned.