PLATFORM LIFTS & LINCOLN CENTER STAIRWAY CHAIRLIFTS THEATER’S MITZI E. NEWHOUSE THEATER PROJECT New York, New York OF THE SUBMITTED BY DOUG BOYDSTON, HANDI-LIFT, INC.

n unusual project for us festival left Lincoln Center in 1978, this year was replacing a and in the seven years that followed, custom lift we had the Newhouse was mostly rented to installed in 1997 with a outside producers or not used. new and improved design In 1985, the theater’s current in 2015. Almost 20 years after the management—Lincoln Center original job, we were honored to Theater—was established. Former again work with the same general NYC Mayor John V. Lindsay contractor and architectural metal assembled a new board of directors and glass fabricator. and signed Gregory Mosher as Team reunites after The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater artistic director and Bernard nearly 20 years to opened to the public on November Gersten as executive producer. In 10, 1967. Located in the lower level 1991, Linda LeRoy Janklow and help revitalize of the Vivian Beaumont Theater André Bishop succeeded Lindsay storied building in New York City (NYC), and Mosher as chairman and artistic this space was originally called the director, respectively. Lincoln entertainment Forum during the residency of the Center Theater has not only now-defunct Repertory Theater of outlasted all prior managements venue. Lincoln Center. In 1973, the theater combined, but it has become was renamed for Mrs. Newhouse, a America’s largest not-for-profit prominent NYC philanthropist, theater, producing a year-round when Joseph Papp’s New York program of plays and musicals at the Shakespeare Festival took over the Beaumont, the Newhouse and at management of the Vivian various other theaters around NYC. Beaumont Theater building. The

2 www.elevatorworld.com • Insert Month Year Left: In the original lift, the upper gate was integrated into the railing to complete the look.

Right: Particular attention was paid to handicapped accessibility.

Technical Specifications The original lift-drive system in the box-office area of the Newhouse was a heavy-duty vertical-platform lift by National Wheel-O-Vator with a custom bronze and glass enclosure on the platform by Paxton Metalcraft. The lift pulled a rolling skirt made by Enterprise Elevator Products up out of the shallow pit to protect the underside of the lift when it was in the upper landing position. Aesthetically, the Travertine marble, advantage was when the lift was brass and in the lower landing no full-height glass were lower landing door was needed among the and the wrought-iron railing on materials used then the stair leading up to the box and now. office was not obstructed. The Left: upper gate was integrated into the Buttons in railing to complete the look, as the original one can see in the pictures of the cab. original lift. Continued

Insert Month Year • ELEVATOR WORLD 3 When the old lift failed and the lift and the stair. This The general contractor had to we were charged with replacing completed the full height remove some of the existing it, we wanted to improve on the enclosure to 42 in. above the marble, cut pieces to fit around serviceability of the lift, while upper landing, which is required the new mast and reinstall them maintaining the aesthetic goals by code. This simplified the to match the original walls. They of the original project. We were design considerably, eliminating also poured the original pit, able to save and restore the a platform gate on a moving which was 36-in. deep (to upper gate, but, instead of the platform and a complex skirt. accommodate the roll-up skirt), complex rolling skirt and The drive system we used this up to 12-in. deep to create a new platform gate concept, we time was the Garaventa roller- platform on which to place the substituted a full-height bronze- chain hydraulic drive. The mast new lift. The result was an and-glass door with a glass and platform were custom economical, more serviceable transom overhead. painted to match the railing and still beautiful lift befitting We supported that transom opposite, and the mast was the grandeur of Lincoln Center with a bronze latch post and buried in the travertine marble Theater. patch hardware on the side wall just as the previous lift was enclosure wall. We added a new buried. Of course, the size of the Top: A wall of bronze and glass between opening needed was not the same. passenger rides the original lift.

Bottom: The team succeeded in retaining the look of the original lift system. SPECIAL FEATURES

♦♦ Steel installed behind the marble to support the latch post and mast ♦♦ Dorma BTS 75 floor closers and Rixon intermediate pivots ♦♦ Garaventa Power Lock 2000 for the interlocks; this style of lock does not require communicating hardware as do electric strikes, and the locks are certified to new ASME A18.1 standards CREDITS

Owner: Lincoln Center Theater, NYC General contractor: Yorke Construction Corp., NYC Drive-system manufacturer: Garaventa, Surrey, Canada Bronze-and-glass enclosure fabrication: Paxton Metalcraft, Peekskill, New York Design and installation: Handi-Lift, Carlstadt, New Jersey

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