The Egg

The Egg – named for its iconic design – is the Empire State Plaza’s Center for the Performing Arts. The A|r Vertical Transportation studio was invited to provide complete elevator modernization for the facility. The unique building required six custom-designed elevators, including four circular passenger elevators, a hydraulic platform lift that services six floors, and a one-of-a-kind hydraulic stage lift with a travel distance of over 100 feet.

Some fun facts about this historic building and our elevator modernization:

Although the “stem” holding up the Egg seems to rest on the platform of the sidewalk, it actually anchors the building by going down six stories into the ground.
There are virtually no straight lines throughout the entire building construction (including our rounded elevators!)
The Egg’s stage lift is adaptable to the size of the performance. For larger equipment and set designs, the opening height can be increased to over 22 feet.

Buffalo Psychiatric Center Behavioral Health Wing

Buffalo Psychiatric Center – Buffalo, NY

Our renovation of the Buffalo Psychiatric Center’s new Children & Youth Behavioral Health wing is well underway.

Universal Design for Public Comfort Stations

We strive to design for all at every level of the built environment. We are looking beyond Gender Neutral design to Universally designed bathrooms, or comfort stations – conceived to be accessible to all people, regardless of gender expression, age, ability, belief, and social structure.