by George Strakosch
Pennsylvania 6-5000
Anyone who loves the music of Glenn Miller will immediately recognize that title, and many will know that it is the phone number of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. Some may wonder what that has to do with elevators and therein lies a story.
Sentimental Journey
This historic hotel was built in 1919 and equipped, at the time, with the latest in vertical transportation, a group of 12-passenger elevators and eight service elevators plus other special service elevators. The hotel provided innovative amenities not found in any hotel previously built. Guests' baggage was transported underground to their suite via a tunnel from Penn Station across the street and into the hotel by elevator. Once there, it was moved to the room by one of the eight service elevators that served all 24 floors. The 12-passenger, single-group elevators and operators served the guests and each floor of the building.
The hotel had 2,200 rooms and 2,200 bathrooms, an oddity for that day. It was the largest ever built at the time and each room, located on floors 2-17, had its own window, a necessity in the days before air conditioning. Ice water was on tap in each room. Other amenities included a valet compartment door for each room, which provided space for clothing to be picked up, cleaned and returned without the need for the bellman to enter the room. And of course, many of the travelers of the day had their own maids and valets, and the suites had accommodations for them as well.
From its opening, the hotel was managed by the Statler organization who enjoyed the reputation of running the best hotels in the U.S. It was financed and built by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. to compete with the hotels near Grand Central Station on the other side of town. Statler had a worldwide reputation, and advertisements for the Hotel Pennsylvania appeared in both U.S. and foreign publications. It was the era of the "Grand Tour," and just as Europe was on the itinerary of Americans, America was a destination for many Europeans. It was the golden age of the 1920s.
There was an ulterior motive for the Pennsylvania Railroad to build a world-class hotel in proximity to Penn Station. Their arch rival, the New York Central, was in the process of constructing the Hotel Commodore, now the New York Hyatt, next to Grand Central Station. Part of the competition was to attract the train passengers from the west to Penn Station via the Broadway Limited rather than let the NY Central have the advantage with their Grand Central Limited. It was the days of the romantic rail travel that faded when airlines replaced the bulk of the passenger railroads.
The hotel survived during the 1930s when railroad travel was the only way to go and one-day trips, say, between New York and Chicago, were unheard of. In spite of wartime shortages, the hotel thrived and enjoyed full occupancy. It was in the early 1940s that your reporter enjoyed its amenities and Glen Miller, after which both of us entered military service.
It was and still is a grand place. The hotel flourished well into the 1950s when all mid-city hotels, especially those associated with railroads, started to slip and occupancy declined.
Moonlight Serenade
By the 1950s, the sun was setting on railroad travel, and occupancy started to slip. Newer hotels vied for patronage, and older ones struggled to maintain their profitability.
A String of Pearls
Hotel Pennsylvania started to age. Various hotel managements were engaged to improve conditions. Statler continued to manage the hotel, eventually purchasing it in 1948 from the Pennsylvania Railroad. It remained the Pennsylvania until 1954 when Conrad Hilton bought it and renamed it the Statler Hilton. Occupancy deteriorated and, where up to 300 unannounced check-ins used to arrive daily, by the 1960s this dropped to zero.
Adding to the decline was the fact that the hotel could not accommodate conventions as the newly-built New York Hilton and Americana could. Old arch-rival Commodore could, but only by combining with the Roosevelt and Biltmore hotels. Hilton sought to change hotel floors to office floors and add central air conditioning to improve its attraction and went as far as to create an exhibit floor by adding a floor above the former high lobby.
The Zeckendorf organization, well-known real estate developers (often referred to as speculators), became the controlling interest in 1979. It was renamed the New York Statler and the room count reduced to 1,700.
About 1983 the hotel was acquired by Abelco Associates a real-estate partnership, controlled by Abe Hirschfeld. He was well known in New York real estate circles. Penta Hotels, a European hotel operator, backed by British Air, Lufthansia and Swissair, became the hotel operators and the name changed to the New York Penta Hotel. Part of the strategy was to take advantage of the increasing convention business and to create a European-flavored atmosphere, in addition to economically-priced rooms and weekend packages.
Penta launched a US$20 million renovation plan. Your reporter recalls surveying the hotel with a team from Jaros, Baum and Bolles, with whom he was associated at the time. Our task was to appraise all the mechanical systems of the hotel and make recommendations for upgrade. Needless to say, the tour was somewhat dismaying when it became apparent that the US$20 million might not be enough. Renovations and upgrades were completed, but the elevators, despite our recommendations, remained the same having had a Westinghouse upgrade prior to 1975 and a Millar upgrade about 1985.
In The Mood
Penta ran the hotel until 1993 when a real estate group bought it. The Hilton organization was engaged to operate it, and it changed names to the New York Hilton. Apparently, the "Hilton" caught on, and the hotel enjoyed improved occupancy and revenue. It gained the attention of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) and became an attractive investment.
This brings our story up to date when United Elevator Consultants and your reporter met with the present operators and owners, the Vornado REIT. Their goal is to create a first-class hotel, and they are succeeding. They upgraded most of the mechanical systems and renovated most of the rooms. One of their major contracts was for an elevator upgrade, and therein lies our interest.
We spent the day looking at the equipment. The elevators themselves have quite a history. The original Otis installation in 1919 consisted of a single-passenger group of 12 gearless machines, model 17-33 with MLF-4 car switch controllers and serving floors A, B, C, M, LL, L, GB, 2-18, 26. It must have been quite a sight to see the 12 operators, in their classic uniforms, standing at attention by their elevators undergoing inspection by the major domo, the chief starter. The elevators were arranged six opposite six with an extremely wide lobby totally unacceptable by today's standards. Folding gates and manual doors plus ornate cabs greeted the passengers.
Equally striking is the service lobby where eight elevators are arranged in a single row. Six of these are the same gearless machines as the passenger cars. Two are monstrous geared machines, Otis model 7R, rated as 4500lb at 450fpm. In addition, there were a number of smaller elevators serving the lower floors of the building for specialized use. All were DC powered from the main Pennsylvania Railroad power plant. Some time prior to 1975, a modernization of the passenger elevators was done in two parts. The four-car group was updated with KM White control and the eight cars with Westinghouse control. We suspect this was accomplished in the 1960s in an effort to reduce operating expenses since 24/7 operation was necessary, and one can imagine the staff of elevator operators required. The service elevators remained manual, car switch. In fact, one of the larger ones has the original Otis MLF40 DC control, which is still in service today. It too will be upgraded.
The passenger elevators were again upgraded in 1985 by Millar. They provided an overlay to establish a 12-car group operation. We expect that the maintenance personnel had a devil of a time keeping the original upgrade in operation making this change a necessity. The equipment has been maintained by various companies.
Our group met with Century Elevator Maintenance Corp. personnel who currently have the maintenance contract and are deeply involved in the upgrade of the entire elevator installation. Century took over the maintenance in April 1998 and became a prime, as well as a successful, bidder for the full modernization contract. All of the major elevators, both passenger and service, are being brought up to date with the latest MCE controls.
Phillip A. Garcia of United Elevator Consultant Services, Inc. who established the scope and specifications for the upgrade, hosted your reporter and EW photographer Jip Chun. Accompanying us were Century President Mickey Wolcson and Vice President, Director of Engineering Jack Stone. We enjoyed a complete tour which, of course, included climbing many stairs to see the various machine rooms. The machine room for the passenger elevators is most impressive, a ballroom compared to most others.
We also had the pleasure of meeting with the present management who relayed the history of the hotel and their involvement, then brought us up to date on the extent of the total renovation they have undertaken. The hotel will be as modern as if built today and yet still retain the ambiance of the past. We are certain it will be the place to stay while visiting New York.
Sunrise Serenade
The scope of the complete modernization includes new cabs, new door operation, the latest in door edges and modern fixtures. For equipment specifications, see the accompanying sidebar. The contrast between the old and the new is exciting.
As for your reporter, my only wish is that Glenn Miller and his orchestra were still playing in the ballroom.
The equipment chosen to modernize the Hotel Pennsylvania elevators was Motion Control Engineering Inc. (MCE) IMC-SCR motors utilizing 12-pulse drive technology. This system is fully digital and regenerative. The MCE M3 group dispatching system was also installed, which includes a 32-bit RISC processor performing real-time evaluation and analysis of the building's traffic. User-defined hall call priorities, integral monitoring and time-activated dispatching configurations are part of the system.
The configuration includes one 12-car group with each car having a 2500lb capacity, traveling at 600fpm; one eight-car group, seven of which having a 2500lb capacity, traveling at 600fpm, and one with a capacity of 4200lb, traveling at 450fpm; and a two-car group, each with a 3000lb capacity at 200fpm.
Some special features include:
-- Cross Cancellation, which maximizes passenger handling through the existing Westinghouse and Armor dispatchers tied into the M3 group system. Under this scheme, calls are registered simultaneously in both the "old" and "new" systems. The first car to arrive cancels calls in both systems (or in this case all three systems). En route cars make a "no call stop" or continue onto another assignment.
-- Emergency Power Staggered Startup, which sequences elevators during any power outages, ensuring that starting current requirements do not exceed emergency generator capacity.
-- SmartLINK, which is a serial communications system for car-operating panels. Using LonWorks® technology, the system reduces required hoistway wiring to two wires for data and two for power.