Builder of skyscraper forgets the elevator

[liberal N proud]

The Builders of This Spanish Skyscraper Forgot the Elevator


The Intempo skyscraper in Benidorm, Spain—standing proud in this image—was designed to be a striking symbol of hope and prosperity, to signal to the rest of the world that the city was escaping the financial crisis. Sadly, the builders forgot to include a working elevator.

In fairness, the entire construction process has been plagued with problems, reports Ecnonomia. Initially funded by a bank called Caixa Galicia, the finances were recently taken over by Sareb – Spain’s so-called "bad bank" – when the mortgage was massively written down.

In part, that was a function of the greed surrounding the project. Initially designed to be a mere 20 storeys tall, the developers got over-excited and pushed the height way up: now it boasts 47 storeys, and will include 269 homes.

http://gizmodo.com/the-builders-of-this-spanish-skyscraper-forgot-the-elev-1065152844

Wouldn't you think you would need an elevator at 20 floors as much as 47?

[Fumesucker]

1. One word..

Jetpacks..

[Warren DeMontague]

24. That picture makes me sad.

It makes me sad because we should be able to have real fuckin' jetpacks, not this thing that vacuums water up from the river and then spits it out so you can fly 10 feet over the water, never mind the big hose dangling down, briefly mimicking the appearance of an actual jetpack.

Yes, yes, I know, a real jetpack is horribly dangerous, aerodynamically unwise and would probably burn one's ass to a crisp. But still. Sigh.

[One_Life_To_Give]

2. Elevators are for Slackers!

Older generations never wasted their time on such crap.

[HereSince1628]

31. So much for US leading the Olympics in medals in the future

Not only will there be people with calves the size of cantelopes, think of their biceps and pectorals after a life of carrying groceries up 47 flights.

[riqster]

3. The architect gave them his word as a Spaniard...

[woo me with science]

4. LOL!

That's something I can see myself doing. It's why I never became a surgeon.

[Drale]

5. Stuff like this happens more than you'd think

When they built AT&T Park in San Francisco, they forgot to put in a Bullpen, that's why they are on the field.

[Raine]

23. When they built the courthouse in the city where I am they forgot to put in

the jury's waiting room so they ended up sticking it in the basement. The juriors have to use the restrooms that are for the bailifs because of course there was no restrooms put in for them either.

[Codeine]

29. That's not actually true.

The designers wanted many of the classic elements of Wrigley Field and Candlestick Park to be reflected in the design of the park, and both of those stadiums had bullpens on the field.

[Aristus]

6. What kind of bad planning is that?

Whenever I see new buildings going up in Seattle, the elevator shafts are always the first things completed.

[RC]

32. Yes, really, because the construction crews use those elevators to haul tools and construction up

and down. That should have been the first thing someone noticed wrong.

[hughee99]

7. How confident would you feel living in a 47 story building designed by an architect

who FORGOT to include elevators, and with project planners who didn't notice this little mistake. Would you feel confident that sprinklers would work properly if there was a fire?

Even at 20 floors you need an elevator unless you're planning to only provide apartments for young, health professional athletes with plenty of time on their hands, never have any visitors, and have no large furniture.

[Mojorabbit]

22. Even in my prime, I would never have made it up 47 floor stairway. nt

[ryan_cats]

35. I hope those extra 20 floors or so don't overload the original floors

I hope those extra 20 floors or so don't overload the original floor's design limits. The article makes it sound like they got to 20 floors and then decided to add 20+ more floors. If the first 20 floors were only designed to take the weight of a 20 story building, I don't think I'd like to live there, besides the no elevator thing.

[L0oniX]

8. Rapunzel needs the job. n/t

[zipplewrath]

9. Code enforcement

Dunno how far along the project got, but really, one is surprised that some sort of building permit/code enforcement didn't catch this long ago. The care little about most of the functional features, but tend to pay attention ALOT to things like stairwells, parking spaces, fire suppression, handicap access and ELEVATORS. (A public building around here pulled a fast one on them when they had sufficient elevators put in for the size of the building, and then reserved 2 of them for the folks on the top floors. There weren't that many on the top floors and it left the other floor woefully under served.)

[PowerToThePeople]

10. Slides and fireman's poles. Trebuchet. Problem solved.

[Motown_Johnny]

25. chutes and ladders

[cthulu2016]

11. Obviously false story turns out to be false. What a shock.

The sentence "Sadly, the builders forgot to include a working elevator" is just a lie.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Yeah, the reality is that they didn't redesign for larger elevator lifting machinery

and that was realised in January 2012. Which means their promotional material doesn't look accurate (El Pais isn't precise on this, but it may mean that some roof space that should have been available for public use has to contain machinery instead). And during construction they didn't have a 'montecargas' (automatically translated as 'forklift', but I suspect it means 'cargo elevator' here) for the workers until it was 23 floors high.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Not quite a lie...

http://www.inquisitr.com/895561/intempo-47-story-skyscraper-no-elevator-benidorm/

They have a working elevator to the 20th floor, but not beyond.

But, more to the point, who would trust anything in a building with this sort of screwup?

[cthulu2016]

17. It just doesn;t have *enough* elevators

Here's the actual story. A 20 story building needs, say, 5 elevators (to pick a number). A 40 story building needs, say, 12 elevators because there are more people in it and the elevator trips are longer.

So simply adding 20 stories to a design for a 20 story building means you end up with a 40 story building with only 5 elevators.

And that is not enough for the traffic.

But the claim that there are no elevators, or even no elevators to the top, is just a lie. Not from you, but from the author of the article. I am not blaming you here.

"Not enough" elevators does not mean "no elevators" and never will mean that.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Did you miss this in the article...

"How did elevator access get overlooked? According to El País, there were multiple elevator problems — including a serious accident.

But the short version is that the original project was intended to be 20 stories. Then the builders decided to make Intempo 47 stories tall but forgot to properly rescale their plans. So the elevators are too small and the motors not powerful enough."

[cthulu2016]

19. No, I did not.

It does mean what you apparently think it means.

Had the author said "without a sufficient elevator system" it would be true, but that wouldn't generate many views.

In any event, if you don't think that the headline and lead paragraph are an intentional attempt to deceive the reader then that is what you think and that's just what it is.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. Yes, that shows cthulu2016 is correct

This is not about the elevator not reaching above the 20th floor; the elevators are too small - ie they have the capacity for a 20 floor building, not a 47 floor one. The more floors you have, the more people there are in a building, wanting to use the elevators at a given time, and the longer the average journey in the elevator. And you need more powerful motors for more people, and longer cables (if the cables are 27 floors longer, they have a significant weight of their own).

[TreasonousBastard]

33. Nobody said they didn't go above the 20th floor...

the story said they don't work above the 20th floor.

To claim that is a falsehood, or that the title is a lie, rather than somewhat sensationalist is ridiculous.

[muriel_volestrangler]

36. The claim that they don't work above the 20th floor is incorrect

Go to the El Pais article, and you find:

En enero de 2012, una nueva sorpresa: no se había tenido en cuenta el hueco del ascensor, como bien se ve en los diseños promocionales donde no constan los típicos espacios dedicados en las azoteas a los motores elevadores. “El espacio estaba calculado para un bloque de 20 plantas”, narran las mismas fuentes.

Google translation:
In January 2012, a new surprise was not taken into account the elevator shaft, as is well seen in the promotional designs which consist not typical rooftop spaces dedicated to lifting engines. "The space was calculated for a 20-storey block," tell the same sources.

These are not elevators that stop working above floor 20 (how would that happen?). They are elevators whose floor area and time of travel was designed for a building of 20 floors. Although construction of the 47 floor building was under way by 2009, and they'd put in the top floor by 2011, it took them until January 2012 to realise that the number of people wanting to use the elevators in the much taller building was going to be far more, and for longer journeys, and so the elevators will be over-crowded - and they needed more powerful machinery, which will take up more space on the roof, than they had designed; the promotional designs show the original situation.

Notice that El Pais says nothing like " they don't work above the 20th floor". If they hadn't changed the elevator machinery, they might not work at all (or they'd have a severely restricted weight capacity); they did change it, but the point is that the designing and building of the tower has been extremely incompetent, for years, which doesn't inspire confidence.

[TreasonousBastard]

37. Really stretching...

my initial objection was calling the story a lie for spurious reasons since the simple fact is that the elevators were a design flaw-- probably one among many.

[muriel_volestrangler]

38. The Gizmodo title and claim are incorrect and highly misleading

"the builders forgot to include a working elevator" - not at all true. During building, the lifting capacity of the machinery had to be increased. "Forgot the elevator" is even more inaccurate.

If the title had been accurate - "architects have to install bigger lift machinery during construction, and elevators may be crowded in use" - then there would be no interesting story at all. The inaccurate title is there to attract clicks - and it works because the original is in Spanish, so few people will check it.

Basically, it's a lie.

[KittyWampus]

12. Part of the allure of having the multi-million dollar penthouse is the workout you get climbing all

those stairs… OR I KNOW>>>

Have rock climbing rungs on the outside of the building. It's a new feature. Pretend you are Spiderman every day.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

15. Shrug... my employer just bought a four storey building that doesn't have a working elevator

It is also missing telephone conduits, most of the 20 amp wiring, it is also missing the top two floors. Nobody can really explain why they stopped at four, but it is supposed to be six. There is a hole between the third and fourth floors for a fancy glass staircase that was never finished. Sheetrock was just hammered up around it.

Built in 2004, abandoned in 2007. We mostly bought it for the parking structure but will gut it and renovate it at some point in the future when needed.

[lpbk2713]

16. Same Spanish Engineer that designed the too heavy submarine?

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336953/Spains-1-75bn-submarine-programme-torpedoed-realising-near-complete-vessel-70-tonnes-heavy.html


Somebody really needs to find a less challenging line of work.


"Um ... ya want fries with those tapas?"

[sarisataka]

20. Sounds like a success

striking symbol of hope and prosperity, to signal to the rest of the world that the city was escaping the financial crisis

This building will provide health benefits to occupants by the opportunities to incorporate exercise into their daily routine. A forward looking energy saving green design...

[Orrex]

21. Sounds like somebody got the shaft.

[KansDem]

27. Look on the bright side...

Just think of the money saved by not having to have these:



(The building does have stairs, doesn't it?)

[Douglas Carpenter]

28. I guess we all get forgetful at times - especially as we grown older

[MADem]

30. And NOW....A word from OUR SPONSOR.....

[CanonRay]

34. Maybe they can sell it as a health spa

carrying your groceries up 47 flights of stairs has got to do you some good.