[MIP] 6x Fujitec Office High Zone Elevators @ One Raffles Place Tower 1, Downtown Core, Singapore

- MIP = Modernization in Progress

One Raffles Place consists of two blade-shaped skyscrapers in the financial district of Singapore, commanding a presence in the city’s skyline due to their distinct forms. The 62-floor Tower 1, completed in 1986, is a slim modernist structure consisting of two triangular structures joined along their hypotenuses, and was the work of the late architect, Kenzo Tange. Formally called OUB Centre, this tower was the tallest building in Singapore upon completion, with a height of 280 meters―the maximum height normally allowed under the city’s building codes. While two other buildings of the same height (Republic Plaza and UOB Plaza One) came along in the 1990s, this record was not broken until Guoco Tower was completed in 2016. The 38-floor Tower 2 opened in 2012, with a design inspired from that of Tower 1 but with a postmodern glass-and-steel facade.

The first five floors as well as the concourse of Tower 1 was home to a shopping mall, while a commercial gym with a roof deck was on a part of level 5 as well as levels 6 and 7. Offices occupied 8th to 60th floors, with the exception of four double-height mechanical spaces on levels 9, 22, 35, and 48. The top three levels were occupied by a rooftop bar called 1-Altitude, which was open at the time of visit but closed for good in March 2022. Below the concourse were three levels of parking and mechanical rooms.

A total of 29 elevators had been installed in Tower 1: two scenic express elevators to the rooftop bar, 18 office passenger elevators, one office service elevator, two retail passenger elevators, two retail service elevators, one elevator within the banking space at the base of the building, two elevators serving the parking garage, and one more recently-installed elevator serving the rooftop bar space, all supplied by Fujitec. Among the office passenger elevators in Tower 1, four served levels 4-21 as well as the parking garage, six served levels 23-39, another six served levels 39-60, and the remaining two served as an internal shuttle between levels 49 and 60 only. All office passenger elevators except the two internal shuttles served level 21 to allow transfers between each other.

This video features the bank of six elevators serving the uppermost office levels from the lobby. At the time of visit, they were being modernized as part of an ongoing elevator upgrading project throughout the building; among those in the high-rise bank, three had already been completely replaced, two were undergoing modernization, and only one remained original. Originally they were Fujitec’s DC gearless models with early microprocessor controllers that accelerated rather forcefully (given the high torque of DC motors) and had “classic leveling,” in which the doors began opening before the car came to a complete stop. While some screeching noises could be heard due to wearing out of the guide rails, the original car ran very smoothly, and was difficult to believe that it was more than 30 years old from the ride quality alone. (Indeed, a well-built DC gearless traction machine can optimally last for about 100 years.) It had square plastic buttons and blinking segment displays both inside the cab and outside the bottom landing, while the cab interior was of etched stainless steel with granite and marble flooring. It had a white ceiling lights, which was reminiscent of a hospital.

The replaced cars were of Fujitec’s newest high-speed model. Their PM gearless machines produced a much more gradual acceleration compared to the older one, though the ride was a little bit shaky. As Fujitec had opted for a stepwise approach to modernization, in which a newer controller is put in place prior to replacement of the machinery and cabs, all cars including the original one were running under EZ-Shuttle, Fujitec’s destination dispatch system. In the original car, the floor buttons functioned as destination indicators, and destination registering inside the cab had been disabled. The new elevators did not have any buttons at all except for the door control and alarm buttons, which were of the HDB standard variety by Dewhurst; destinations were displayed on the door jamb instead. They had brass-colored stainless steel cabs with a much warmer lighting scheme, while an LCD display took the place of the floor indicator. For some reason, the current floor instead of "–" or "––" typical of Fujitec was displayed in the express zone. The destination dispatch system was integrated with turnstiles on floor 1, with a call automatically registered for the floor coded in the access card.

Manufacturer: Fujitec Singapore Corporation Ltd
Model name: DC-GL (before mod); ELSIA (after mod)
Year of commission: 1986 (before mod); 2021-2022 (after mod)
Loading: 1,155kg (2,550lbs)
Capacity: 17 persons
Full speed: 7m/s (1,400FPM) (before mod); 8m/s (1,600FPM) (after mod)
Serviced floors: *1, 21, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60

[elevatorfilmersg]

Btw, the old controllers are still in use even for the unmodernised cars. They just connected the new destination dispatch system to the old controller and the new system would tell the old controller which floor to go to. I spoke to Fujitec workers present at the site

[caja]

Hi Mark, recently, I have found an old pic of the "1986 high rise Fujitec lift machine room!" before mod from Instagram and found out that the manufacturer of that before mod was actually Fujitec Co., Ltd. Japan. After mod, idk.

[PLLifts]

21 allows for crossover to the low rise bank for basement carpark access(as well as the mid rise bank, though those don't go below 1); however it can only be unlocked by tenant cards and not visitor ones. 38 can also be unlocked by tenant card, and that allows for crossover to the mid rise. For that matter, the new high rise lifts and the fire lift use voices from Japan while the mid and low rise use the usual Juanita Melson voices.

This tower doesn't have any dedicated carpark lifts, they're all clearly meant for the mall and a bit of a walk to get to from the tower, which is why tenants can access the carpark from various lifts(lift B in this bank allows access to B2, while in the low rise lobby, all 4 lifts serve B3, but 2 lifts also serve B2 while the other 2 also serve B4 iirc). They can also access levels 4 and 5 which are part of the mall.

Back when this tower opened I'm guessing visitors could and were meant to ride the office lifts from the carpark, but once access control was put in the ability to do so became no more.

[DAWON]

이곳 전망용의 경우 내부에 텐키가 있었는데 B1, 1, 61, 62층만 운행하고 텐키를 막아놓았으며, 일반형으로 개조했습니다.
그 엘리베이터는 내부운전반에 등록된 층도 나오던데 아날로그 위치표시기처럼 생겼고 전층운행이 가능하도록 설치했다가 나중에 최상층만 운행하도록 변경한 것으로 보입니다.

[elevatorfilmersg]

Some of the lifts here have loose breaks. When at a landing it can suddenly just go up about 2 centimetres for no reason, and sometimes it would go back down after going up. When doing so the lift can vibrate very hard and it’s quite scary

[TIBEProductions]

OH WOW U FILMED IT TOO. When was it filmed tho? Now all fujitecs there are gone

[sgstuff]

during the mod they kept the motor (iirc)

[LiftyGamez]

Arent the new ones PMGL? Also during mod they sped the new ones up to 8m/s.