Glass provides a
design solution at the mall
By Debra Gerod

glass to the rescue again! The challenge was how to improve the accessibility for persons with disabilities and shoppers with baby strollers in the “high rent” district of the country’s highest grossing shopping center without adversely impacting rentable floor area, sight lines or the ease of circulation of shoppers.

The solution? Install one of the largest and most transparent glass elevators ever built in California and put it squarely in the middle of the mall where its transparency combined with other improvements such as new low-iron glass guardrails, not only maintains sightlines, but also actually improved them.

The Jewel
Last year, in time for the winter holiday shopping season when 80 percent of the mall’s revenue is generated, the newest jewel at South Coast Plaza, in Costa Mesa, Calif., was unveiled in the form of a 6,500-pound capacity, glass and stainless steel observation elevator. This elevator’s rated capacity can accommodate over 40 people, although its primary use is transporting a fewer number of patrons loaded with shopping bags and families with deluxe strollers.

It was designed by Gruen Associates of Los Angeles to appear to be seamless to the mall. The elevator cab has glass from floor to ceiling on all four walls with no intermediate mullions to obstruct views. The all-glass doors have under-floor door operators so that the hardware on the top of the cab and hoist-way doors is as discreet as possible, rather than the overhead operators found on most elevators, especially in California where more stringent and prescriptive elevator codes are in place.

The elevator control buttons are located in freestanding stainless steel pedestals on the sides of the cab (in line with the guide rails) rather than the front so that the front maintains maximum transparency. The top and bottom of the cabs, normally a place where structural members, fans, and other equipment are visible, were designed and shrouded so that they do not draw attention to themselves.

Ground Floor
The floor of the elevator cab is the same chocolate brown (Noce) travertine material used in the adjacent mall flooring so that the cab appears to be just a section of the mall floor. Because of the exceptional transparency and very public location, when the elevator is raised up to the second level, the elevator pit becomes visible. Gruen Associates lined the elevator pit walls and floors with the same Noce travertine to make it appear to be a part of the mall floor.

To minimize visual obstructions, the hoist-way (the code required protection around the elevator shaft) is also made of glass that is cantilevered from the floor to eliminate the need for support mullions. The glass panels are ¾-inch thick laminated and ¾- inch thick tempered, low-iron glass which is butt glazed and clipped together with small stainless steel plates (approximately 6 x 6 inches), with the largest panel measuring 12 foot long and 5 foot high. The supports for the guide rails are strategically located toward the front of the cab, where they serve double duty by concealing the hydraulic fluid lines, electrical conduit, and various safety switches and devices required by the elevator codes.

PRL Glass Systems, City of Industry, Calif., provided the tempered hoist-way glass and GlassPro, Santa Fe Springs, Calif., provided the curved laminated hoist-way glass. California Glass Bending, Wilmington, Calif., provided the curved laminated glass on the cab. It is incredible that we used so many fabricators and got such consistent results.

Inside the Glass Elevator
Aside from how successful the planning and design of the elevator were (the glass elevator became an immediate hit and has been in constant operation since it was brought on line in November 2007) the real success story was the speed with which this was designed, awarded, fabricated, installed, and commissioned and the close collaboration required of the design and construction team members to pull this together.

The renovation of the mall was done in a fully occupied and fully functioning environment. All construction work in the mall had to be completed after 10 p.m. The renovation was being completed in time for the start of the holiday shopping season in November 2007, during the 40th anniversary of the mall’s opening in 1967 for which Gruen Associates was also the original architect.

The elevator was a crucial portion of this renovation effort. Although Gruen conceived the general design of the elevator in early 2006, with the help of elevator consultant Lerch Bates Inc. (LB) and structural engineer Peyton-Tomita & Associates, the final detailing came about once the contractor, Howard S. Wright Constructors, was selected and the elevator manufacturer, Mitsubishi Elevators US, was brought on board in mid-2006. Mitsubishi, in turn, brought in Custom Cabs Industries (CCI) to fabricate the cab.

Together, Gruen, LB, Mitsubishi, and CCI precisely worked out how each required element could be fabricated so that they contributed to the minimalist design intent. This collaboration, supplemented by the work of Columbia Fabricating Co., subcontractors for the hoist-way enclosure, Custom Metal Fabricating, subcontractor for the ornamental metals, and Italian Marble and Tile, the stone installers, led to the successful completed installation.

Architects' Guide to Glass & Metal
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