Hydraulic Elevator Modernization – Forest Park, IL

 

In April of 1969 Colley Elevator ordered material for a building that was being built Forest Park, IL and Feguson Jenkins, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Ernie Banks where on their way to their ill-fated season where they should have won the pennant race.  52 Years later we modernized the elevator and a few years prior the Cubs won the World Series.  Over the last 52 years we had a preventative maintenance relationship with the building and it finally was time to replace the elevator equipment.  A few great things about this; we had a great relationship with our customer for 52 years and the elevator equipment was still running the day we took it out of service to complete the elevator modernization. 

Existing elevator & project scope – The building owner had a few issues with the elevator system and we had prepared them over the years that the day was coming where they would have to replace the equipment, the day finally came.

[Old Machine room layout]

[New Machine room layout]

New equipment providers

Controllers – Smartrise Engineering

Power units – Delaware Elevator w/Maxton UC4 valve

Door operators – GAL MOVFR

Fixtures – Innovation Industries

Hydraulic elevator controller – The 1969 Elevator Research and Manufacturing[ERM] had seen its better days and was ready for replacement. Some minor replacements had been made over the years; a new electronic selector and a new starter.  

[Old ERM Controller]

[New Smartrise Engineering Controller]

Hydraulic elevator power unit – This was a Colley Elevator special, made in Franklin Park, IL.

[New Delaware Elevator power unit]

[New Maxton UC4 valve]

Door operators – The elevator had a GAL MOD on it prior to the modernization and replaced with a GAL MOVFR.  The door operator came out of the Bronx, NYC across the street from Yankee Stadium.  The New York Mets won the Pennant this year.  As a Chicagoan I'm not sure of the difference between the two teams, they both have pin stripes.

[New GAL MOVFR and fire resistant paint on the wood car top]

 

Elevator fixtures – The old EPCO fixtures are replaced with new code compliant Innovation Industries elevator fixtures.

[Old EPCO elevator car station]

[New Innovation Industries ADA compliant car station]

[Old first floor EPCO hall station]

[New Innovation Industries 1st floor hall station - ADA compliant]

 

Take away – The elevator modernization is a pretty vanilla one in the grand scheme of things.  But, this is what most elevator modernizations are, buildings with older elevator equipment who need to be educated prior to their elevator equipment conking out.  It is amazing to see some of the equipment we installed back in the late 1960’s still running.  I was just at a building in Skokie, IL that still has a 1966 Colley Elevator running.  I’m confident that the elevators we are currently installing, as an industry, will not last close to 52 years.  Way to go 1969 Team Colley.  The Chicago Cubs are still here, Colley Elevator is still here.  We have some legends on both teams.

Hey! Sign up for our mailing list!  We should be getting a monthly email going out sometime in Q1 of next year.

If you have any questions or would like additional information feel free to contact me at CraigZ@colleyelevator.com or 630-766-7230 ext. 107.

Also check us out on Instagram @Colleyelevator see what we have been up to.