The Kean University Showdown of October 2021: High Speed Edition
- The Rising Salamander Academy
- Oct 30, 2021
- 6 min read
Date of showdown: October 30
Time of showdown: 9:30 PM
Introduction
For this showdown, we have broken it into 3 distinct parts:
1. The Green Lane Academic Building, which is an academic building with 6 floors, with the university bookstore & Starbucks café on the ground floor & with a set of two single-slide door high-speed Schindler 400AE MRL lifts installed in late 2013/early 2014
2. The North Avenue Academic Building, opposite to the Green Lane Academic Building, but with similar characteristics, with a giant auditorium on the ground floor & with a set of two single-slide door high-speed OTIS Gen2 lifts installed in late 2016
3. The STEM Building, with a two-level atrium on the ground floor, with a set of two center-opening single-slide door high-speed 1.5 m/s generic lifts installed in 2010
Part 1: The Green Lane Academic Building
As part 1 implies, this is a futuristic-looking academic building which has 6 floors. It has a bookstore on the ground floor, with a Starbucks café serving various types of coffee & pastries. Aside from the glitz & glamour, this building houses a pair of two great Schindler 400AE high-speed MRL lifts traveling 1.75 m/s (EleMeter speed test verified). These lifts, along with the building built, were installed in late 2013/early 2014. The building was opened to the public on January 21 of 2014.
The Lifts
The lifts are Schindler 400AE MRL & are among the fastest & highest rising on campus. These lifts travel a total distance of around 23 meters at a maximum speed of 1.79 meters per second. These lifts chime once when the door opens then again for each a time a button not in the queue is pressed, regardless of whether it chimed before. This is a rare feature for modern-day Schindler X00A traction models, giving them character. At each landing, HT premium call buttons are mounted on the separate door jambs but are wired together so both call stations call both lifts. Each of the two lifts are fitted with their own call stations, but as mentioned before, the lifts are hooked to the same controller, increasing efficiency.
These lifts have stainless steel doors on every landing, with an HT-premium standard external floor indicator affixed relative to the center of the door frame. On the inside, the panel is very wide & protruding from the panel wall itself, with the floor indicator a separate entity, welded to the same stainless steel panel wall element. The lantern on the door jamb is a Schindler HT standard door jamb lantern. The buttons are HT standard, along with the internal floor indicator. These behave like any other Schindler 400AE & have the same run character. They level intelligently, which make them great lifts.
Overall, these lifts score 4.1 stars on the General Chicago Lift Character Report & 751 credits on the Signature Lift Character Credit Report. For a lift that is 7 years of age, these lifts are holding up very well for what they are.
Part 2: The North Avenue Academic Building
As part 2 implies, this building is opposite on campus to the Green Lane Academic Building & is 2 & a half years newer than the Green Lane Academic Building. Both buildings were built by the same company, which can be one of the reasons behind their strikingly similar exterior design. Unlike the Green Lane Academic Building, this building does not have a bookstore on the ground level & the atrium staircase takes up the ground & second floor instead of the second & third floor. There is no staircase on the exterior of the building going up to the second floor either. This building has blue windowpanes instead of green windowpanes but does not have the bars going around the building like the Green Lane Academic Building does. Instead of a bookstore, on the ground floor there is an Au Bon Pain café located right across from the lifts, 4 full-sized classrooms, a small study lounge across from the auditorium, 1 computer lab & a midsize auditorium, complete with blue ambient lighting on the walls. This building gives off similar vibes to the Borgata Resort in Atlantic City due to the way it was designed. The second floor has an outdoor patio, enclosed by a balcony, unlike the Green Lane Academic Building. Levels 3-5 have a very similar layout, along with level 6. This building opened to the public on September 1 of 2016.
The Lifts
The lifts are OTIS Gen2 MRL & are among the fastest & highest rising on campus. These lifts travel a total distance of around 26 meters at a maximum speed of 1.8 meters per second. However, these lifts have a reputation of breaking down & being poorly maintained, which in a way, gives them even more run character. The buttons & fixtures are nothing special run of the mill OTIS Newer Series 2 buttons you can find on almost any newer Gen2 anywhere throughout the continent, but what really distinguishes these lifts from other Gen2 lifts of the modern times is in how the car to the right runs.
The left car is a smooth, basic standard Gen2 lift with no interesting run character elements to write home about, apart from its wacky deceleration & slightly longer leveling time when approaching the lobby level.
The right car, however, has an interesting story. During my freshman year at Kean University (before the COVID-19 pandemic took full swing in March 2020), this lift broke down twice, each time for around 2 weeks before being put back into service. It has a faulty door operator & got stuck in nudge mode both times, prompting the KONE maintenance guys to come over each time to repair the lift. Due to OTIS’s complicated controller design, the KONE guys spent a few weeks going through the logic to diagnose & fix the error.
Apart from being very faulty, this lift has more character than the lift next to it. It has a very loud interlock & rattles like crazy approaching only the ground floor going down but does not rattle when decelerating towards any of the other floors. The belts are worn out, giving the impression of a rubbing sound heard throughout the shaft. The lift shakes to some degree on the way up & the lights flicker, but it is only minor. Fast acceleration is another feature this lift sports. In terms of the motor, throughout the pandemic, the old, faulty, loud & rough motor was replaced with a new Gen2 motor. This did not take away much character from the lift at all & the reliability of the lift has improved significantly since the new motor was installed.
Overall, these lifts score 4.4 stars on the General Chicago Lift Character Report & 784 credits on the Signature Lift Character Credit Report. For a lift that is 5 years of age, it can be maintained better, but it’s epic & awesome either way.
Part 3: The Stem Building
This building is on the other side of the road from the Green Lane Academic Building & North Avenue Academic Building & has 6 floors, like the other high rise academic buildings on campus. This is the oldest of the four 6-level buildings, but the lifts are still in great condition for only being 11-12 years old. The building has a very futuristic science theme to it on the outside & inside. On the inside, from levels 1-2, there lies a wide, spacious atrium with a kiosk located right by the entrance on both levels. On level 2, there lies the building’s auditorium & the upper entrance to the Ursino steakhouse. On levels 3-5 there are various classrooms & labs operated by external science firms. An atrium exists between levels 4 & 5 with couches on level 4 at the bottom of the atrium. On level 6 is a conference & catering center with open observatories surrounding the conference center.
The Lifts
The lifts are basic standard high speed Generic lifts that you can find in any other 6-level office building throughout NJ so they’re nothing to write home about. These lifts rarely break down & they have never been broken during my time at Kean University thus far. They are very reliable generic lifts & some of the more reliable on campus, which is a huge positive for it being a generic lift. Some features of this lift are quite bland, but other features of this lift make it stand out from other copies of this lift, including accelerating very quickly & leveling very quickly. I also like the cable noises & 2-tone floor passing chime for the left car.
Overall, these lifts score 3.6 stars on the General Chicago Lift Character Report & 696 credits on the Signature Lift Character Credit Report. For a lift that is 12 years of age, these lifts are in nearly perfect condition but the run character will improve over time as the machinery & components wear out.
Showdown
If you liked what you just read, you can tune into our showdown in 30 minutes. The event link is down below.
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