Very High Tech - Elevator Garages in an NYC Hi-Rise 308
theodp writes "If the hassle of getting groceries from the parking garage to your 12th floor condo has been holding you back from buying a deluxe apartment in the sky, wait no more. Wired reports on the En-Suite Sky Garages at 200 Eleventh Avenue (Flash) in Chelsea, where an 8,000-pound-capacity freight elevator will whisk your Bentley directly into your pad. The convenience doesn't come cheap — a garage-equipped 2BR starts at $4.7M."
one at a time please! (Score:5, Insightful)
Elevator Garage? (Score:1, Insightful)
What a colossal waste of living space and energy. This is a prime example of convenience trumping common sense. The kinetic energy alone to lift a 1000kg car up 50 meters to your garage exceeds 1.3 kW, even at a leisurely 6 minute round-trip pace. (1000kg*50m*9.8m/s^2*360sec = ~1300 W)
Now lets say you take the car out every day: 40 kW per person per month, 480kW/year person. If only 100 units are available in the building, that's 48MW of power used annually. Just to park the damn Bentley! The ironic bit is that the rich fat cats that will pay for this sort of convenience are the same ones that cry about "hurting the environment" every time someone wants to build a development outside the city (granted, the point may be valid). Start practicing what you preach, eh?
Re:Elevator Garage? (Score:3, Insightful)
People that care about the environment and live in new york just do not own cars. New York is rare in that it is much more convenient if you do not own a car and it is a complete pain in the ass if you do (and insist on using it). So if you care about the environment the choice is pretty simple.
I think people that will be living in that building just do not give a shit about the environment and need some way to get the out of the city and to the hamptons without having to use public transportation of any kind.
Re:Elevator Garage? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:wow! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Cheaper than parking on the street (Score:2, Insightful)
Your all missing the point - it's about security (Score:5, Insightful)
I would totally pay for one if i had the cash.
Consider (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Elevator Garage? (Score:1, Insightful)
The watt is a unit of power, not energy. Your figures work out to 490,000 Joules to lift the car, which is 0.14 kWh. At 10-20 cents per kWh, that is less than most people tip the parking valet.
Now lets say you take the car out every day: 40 kW per person per month, 480kW/year person. If only 100 units are available in the building, that's 48MW of power used annually.
You're confusing power & energy again. If 100 people ride the elevator once a day, every day for a year, that would be 5 MWh of energy, which isn't a whole lot.
Re:They will sell (Score:5, Insightful)
One Word: Scooter (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:wow! (Score:3, Insightful)
-Mike
Re:one at a time please! (Score:5, Insightful)
Forgive me... (Score:4, Insightful)
...but how is a high-capacity elevator high tech? I always assumed that being "high tech" involved overcoming some sort of engineering or scientific hurdle. A wrist computer, flying car, video cell phone, etc.
Is there any reason this thing couldn't've been built with 1950s elevator technology?And when the elevator breaks down... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Your all missing the point - it's about securit (Score:3, Insightful)
Space high up is worth more than space in the basement, because people prefer living on the 10th floor instead of in the basement.
A private elevator that opens directly at your apartment is *less* risky than this, did you look at the floorplans ? Sure there's a garage on your floor-level, you do however need to exit that garage, and go trough the stairwell to enter your actual apartment. Said stairwell is accessible to everyone in the building. (it needs to be, for fire-security reasons)
A private elevator is *quicker*, quite simply because it doesn't need to lift 8000lbs.
So, what are you going to prefer:
Driving into the basement-garage, stop at the turner-plate, enter elevator, wait 20 seconds and be in your apartment.
Or Driving into the car-lift. Wait a minute. Driving into your garage. Exiting and locking the garage. Go trough the stairwell. Unlock and enter your apartment.
It's a no-brainer....
Re:Groceries (Score:1, Insightful)
I used to live on the 23rd floor of a high-rise in Chicago. Groceries were never a problem. The 1st floor of the building was a grocery store and they delivered with purchases of $20 or more (excluding alcohol and cigarettes). Likewise all the local grocery stores would deliver to your apartment free of charge with a minimum purchase.
What? No seriously, what?
Attention American apartment owners!
You guys seriously have home delivery from a store in your own fucking building? This is why you guys are so fat!
Paying for convenience, meeting a need (Score:4, Insightful)
Such a service would be a godsend if I were really sick. Back when I used a pharmacy that delivered, I tended to need them most when I was ill. My disabled mom could really use something like this.
Also, there's many a day that I'm simply not in a cheerful enough mood to subject the rest of society to my attitude. I'd be doing my neighbors a favor if I didn't come out of the apartment, taking a chance on running into that rude kid that lives down the hall, the surly teen stocker, and the annoying nosy neighbor, any one of whom might be treated to an unwanted bit of conflict when we came into contact. On those days when I'm not feeling particularly polite, I tend to stay in; I think it's the polite thing to do.
What I'm saying is that while I wouldn't use such a service very often, I can think of times when it would be appropriate. I can also think of lots of people who would make the world a better place if they'd just stay in their apartment and never come out.
Re:Consider (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm an IT intern just starting, and looking for an apartment in NYC that I can afford on my reasonably decent intern salary. It's pretty much suicide, but I'd do anything at this point to skip the 2 hour+ commute to and from Staten Island (one of the other boroughs, except we have virtually no mass transit. 2 hours for 20 fucking miles...) I mostly look at the lower income housing, but 5 million dollars for an apartment, to BUY it no less, is about average, in a place where some rooms can cost $10,000+ per night. And the people who buy those DO live in them, because the usually get them because they work in the area.
I work with stock traders all the time at work and you're right, a lot have multiple homes, but it's mostly like, a weekend house in Connecticut, and their apartment here. They don't have Bentleys, or islands, or even chauffeurs. That kinda thing is WAY above them. Shit, even most CEOs (I work for the 10th largest company in the world, and I refer to the CEO of the American ventures in this case, because I know the guy) don't have those things.
So please, spare me your delusions of what you think the wealthy live like, based off of what seems to be a VHS library of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" reruns and Cribs marathons. the fact that you got modded so high for such a vapid comment amazes me.
Re:Cheaper than parking on the street (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, in terms of average energy cost per resident, New York City is already one of the greenest cities in the US. Less than half of households own cars, 1 in 3 mass transit trips in the US is made on the NYC subway, and dense apartment buildings mean your excess heat and cooling leaks into your neighbor's residence instead of the air. If you were to take New York City's residents and change the population density to that of Suffolk County (the eastern county on Long Island), you would need an area the size of Maryland to house them.
In terms of environmental impact per square mile, New York City is certainly terrible, but in terms of environment impact per person (which is generally a better metric), New York City does fabulously.
Re:Cheaper than parking on the street (Score:3, Insightful)
Not really. The train only has to beat the total travel time of the airplane, which nowadays is increasing steadily. Between early check-ins and clearing security, picking up your baggage, etc, etc, trains don't have to beat your 30-min in-the-air time, they get to beat your 4 hours from arrival at airport to the time you walk out, including delays.
If you throw in a locomotive as quick as the Shinkasen, you can easily give airplanes a run for their money in terms of total travel time and hassle.