Lift Report

One example is the daring roof structure, reminiscent of a ceiling of clouds for the BMW World. Its 16,000 square meters of surface area rest on only twelve visible supports and could easily cover St. Mark’s Square in Venice. Or consider the finely detailed steel and glass façade. Not only does it enhance the optics of the building but, in a sophisticated interaction with the solar technology on the roof, helps to maintain a comfortable climate throughout the structure.

The selection of high-quality components continues in the building’s interior. Visitors feel throughout that they are seeing something very special, right down to the last detail. This is also true for the high quality elevators with their refined feel, giving access to the numerous enclosed floors and to the open platforms and galleries in the BMW World. There is a total of 17 elevators (11 passenger and 6 freight lifts). These units were planned and constructed by Paul Schmidt Aufzüge in the town of Medebach and all are fitted with door systems made by Meiller Aufzugtüren GmbH, a firm also located in Munich.

As was mentioned at the outset, the delivery salon is the centerpiece at BMW World. The salon is fitted with elegant leather sofas and provides views of the BMW Headquarters Building and the BMW Museum. This is where purchasers look forward to “the grand moment”, as BMW puts it – taking possession of their brand-new vehicle. Occupying about 3000 square meters of floor space and rising five meters above the plaza, the stage is set by 30 individual delivery slots with 20 turntables for the vehicles.

Before the vehicle is presented to the customer, it is taken through a carwash in the building’s basement. This is followed by the final technical inspection and the process is concluded when the license plates are attached.

Then the vehicle, ready for the road, is raised in one of the glazed elevators to the “Premiere” level, where it is presented to the customer on one of the turntables or slots.

The two large hydraulic lifts are thus fixed components in the day-to-day sequence associated with vehicle delivery at BMW. This lift transports about 100 cars each day.

Each lift is driven with a triple power unit, each with total pumping capacity of 1890 l/min and overall motor output of 180 kW. The Meiller hoistway doors – in stainless steel in the lower floors and made up in glass for the top floor – are the 6-panel, center-parting Model TTS22, measuring 2700 mm wide x 2200 mm tall.

Even though these are essentially heavyduty freight elevators, these lifts present an image more like finely outfitted passenger elevators. Glazing on all sides in combination with finely detailed stainless steel elements and dramatic interior illumination create this impression. In the intermediate floor, at the public visitor level and in the area of the technology and design exhibits, the large glass portals are bathed in blue light, enhancing the high-tech feeling of the exhibition.

In addition to the two vehicle lifts, the glazed overheads of which are located unobtrusively and nonetheless prominently in the center of the “Premiere”, there are 17 passenger lifts in the complex, connecting the various areas in the buildings. They are all equipped either with 2-panel glass doors or with stainless steel doors made by Meiller. The elevators set accents in the building’s structure and at the same time are integrated harmoniously into the architecture.

BMW World makes particularly apparent the important position that modern elevators and elevator portals assume in the overall concept of trend-setting architecture – and how superb utility and esthetics complement each other. This is one aspect that no ambitious planner or owner who thinks in visionary and holistic dimensions can avoid.

Not quite as spectacular but just as reliable and just as much a fixed element in daily operating routines are, for instance, the car lifts at the BMW Agency on Landsberger Strasse in Munich. Centrally located in this great metropolis, where commercial real estate is dear, the company does not occupy a large, single-story exhibit building and shop facility surrounded by vast customer parking lots but instead has built upward, over several storeys, with a small footprint for the building. Five large lifts that can “swallow” complete delivery trucks distribute vehicles to the shop levels or to the carwash three floors above ground level.

In this system, too, large-format, fourpanel stainless steel doors made by Meiller are in use. The interior surfaces of the doors are fitted with mirrored “wainscoting” serving as a maneuvering aid for the person driving the car into the elevator. As another entry aid, light grids at the closing edges signal the opening and closing of the doors.

These examples provide an impressive demonstration of how modern elevator technology can help to bring superbly contemporary architecture and economic utility into alignment.