A department store located in the core commercial district of a second tier city in southern China has been in operation for 20 years. However, with the emergence of emerging commercial complexes in the surrounding area, customer traffic has gradually declined. The management decided to upgrade it to an experiential shopping center that integrates catering, entertainment, and retail, but during the elevator renovation process, the contradiction between the old building structure and modern commercial needs was unexpectedly exposed.
Design and compatibility challenges
The mall originally had four hydraulic elevators with a load capacity of 1000 kilograms, a service life of over 15 years, and frequent malfunctions. The hydraulic elevator needs to reserve a 1.5-meter oil pit at the bottom of the shaft, while the second floor underground is planned as a parking lot, resulting in spatial conflicts. Meanwhile, the elevator still uses the relay control system from the 1990s, which is completely incompatible with modern intelligent dispatch systems; The embedded pipelines are aging and corroded, which may endanger the safety of the building structure during the demolition and renovation process.
The cost far exceeds the budget
The original planned upgrade budget was 2 million yuan, but the actual cost exceeded: an additional 300000 yuan was spent on structural reinforcement, an additional 150000 yuan was spent on replacing buttons and sensors to adapt to the intelligent system, and construction delays caused the mall to close for two months, resulting in a direct loss of over 5 million yuan. Overall, the maintenance cost of old elevators in China is about three times that of new elevators, and the failure rate is as high as five times.
Transformation Strategy and Innovation
Experts suggest following three principles: first, ensure that the new elevator complies with safety regulations and accessibility requirements; Secondly, on the basis of retaining the original shaft, modular elevators should be selected to reduce the amount of construction; Finally, reserve IoT interfaces to provide conditions for future intelligent building management. Innovative solutions such as moving the control cabinet to the top of the shaft and installing an energy feedback device not only save room space and reduce environmental pollution, but also reduce energy consumption by about 40%.
Transformation achievements and inspirations
After the renovation is completed, the mall will install a new glass elevator, which will reduce passenger waiting time to less than 30 seconds through an intelligent scheduling system. This elevator renovation project demonstrates that in the upgrading of old shopping malls and urban renewal, paying attention to every detail is necessary to achieve the best balance between safety, efficiency, and cost.