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WhenMadison SquareGarden calls itself “TheWorld’sMost Famous Arena”, fewdisagree. It has a rich
history of hostingnearly everymajor name inmusic, all-star athletes, national political conventions, and
numerousworld-famous shows and events. Renovating the iconic buildingwas neither quick nor easy,
but the transformation ensures the facilitywill continue tobe a legendary venuewell into the future.
MADISON SQUAREGARDEN –NEWYORKCITY, USA
The legend lives on
inManhattan
The indoor arenahasbeen in itspresent location since1968
and is currentlyhome to twomajorNewYork sports teams.
After years of high trafficuse, thearenawas inneedof a
major transformation tomeet theexpectations of today’s
spectators.
Modernequipment,maximumbenefit
Aspartof theUSD1billion renovation, KONEwasbrought
in tomodernize the existing elevators and escalators,
ensuringoptimal people flow for the crowds of 18,000
andmore frequently visiting thearena.
“We replaced theexistingescalator equipmentwithKONE’s
lighter,moreefficient systems,” says
LeVaur Livingstone
,
KONERegional ProjectManager. “Thenewglass designs
also fit extremelywell with the layout of the arena.”
KONE installed 45new eco-efficient escalators to fully
replace the old equipment. In addition, the KONE
EcoMod
™
escalatormodernization solutionwas utilized
to upgrade the entireworkings of three escalators
without removing the existing trusses.
“Themodernizedequipment hasmoreadvanced safety
and energy efficient features compared to the old
equipment,” Livingstone says. “Thatmakes formore
comfort and reliability for the passengers.”
KONEalsomanaged the installationof fivenewelevators.
Home teamadvantage
Transformingamajor site in crowdedmidtownManhattan
poses logistical problems of its own. To further complicate
matters,MadisonSquareGarden is home to theNewYork
Knicks basketball teamandNewYorkRangers icehockey
franchise, and theownerswanted to keep thearenaopen
for the full seasons.
As a result, the venuewas onlyavailable for renovationover
the summer off-seasonwithwork carried out over three
years. “We had to carefullymap out the job, draw up a
detailed schedule and then coordinate the schedulewith
the other parties involved,” Livingstone says.
Evengetting theold equipment out of thebuilding took
agreat deal of ingenuity. Tominimize the temporaryaccess
required, existing equipment was removed through the
windows on the secondfloor. Later, all newequipmentwas
hoisted through thewindows and intoposition.
“Therewas a lot of planningandengineering thatwent
into this transformation,” says
FrankGramarossa
, Project
Executiveat TurnerConstructionCompany, the contractor
on theproject.
Gramarossaadds, “We kneweachother going inand that
is anadvantage. Itmade theplanningand the collaboration
mucheasier.Whenpush came to shove, KONEgot it done.
Itwas a very successful undertakingonboth sides.”
KONEwill maintain the equipment atMadison Square
Gardenandwill have two service technicianson siteduring
events to keep theequipment inpeak running condition.