Renovations on tap for elevators

After years of complaints about slow, unreliable elevators in the high rises, Residential Maintenance decided to take action. Over the summer, two High Rise South elevators were renovated, and the remaining two are scheduled to be upgraded this year -- one each semester, according to Residential Maintenance Director Lynn Horner. For HRS residents, this means that there will be only three elevators in operation for the rest of the year. In addition, two elevators in each of the other high rises will be renovated next summer, with the remaining four to be completed next school year, Horner said. Renovations include a new stop at the upper lobby to allow for handicapped access to the mail, computer and package rooms, said Joe Kirk, Manager of Residential Operations, last week. Horner said the extra elevator stop puts the building in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. Another main point of the renovations is "to replace existing mechanical controls with electronic ones," Horner said. An Amtech elevator repairman, who is responsible for renovations of the high rise elevators, said that a new microprocessor system is being installed to control the elevators. The system, which operates as fast as a computer, should drastically improve efficiency, he explained. He added that the speed and number of elevators is insufficient for a 25-story building. Unfortunately, many students say they have not yet seen a difference in elevator performance. HRS resident and College junior Jin Lee said that the elevators "look better but they're still pretty slow." And College senior Eric Siegel agreed. "I get really frustrated when it takes 15 minutes to get to the bottom [of HRS]," he said. There have also been reports of elevators stopping at random floors or not stopping at designated floors. College junior Chad Kobos relayed an incident where the buttons for floors 8 and 22 were pushed, but the elevator stopped on the 24th floor. Kobos and Lee also reported that the button lights in one of the HRS elevators were not working. But HRS resident and Wharton senior Rebecca Valdez said she has not experienced any more problems than before the renovations were complete. Horner explained that during move-in, there were some problems with the newly renovated elevators recognizing the new upper lobby stop, but that those problems have been ironed out. The elevator repairman said approximately 85 percent of the problem calls he gets have been caused by student interference with the system. "New technology won't solve the problem of soda cans in the doors," he said.