Present

Consultants working within Lerch Bates Europe handle over 600 projects annually. At one end of the spectrum of our work is the client who simply wants to know what their options are for modernising the lift in their nursing home. At the other extreme we are retained by clients to undertake the detailed planning,  specification and oversight  of delivery of the vertical transportation systems for new high rise towers that will change the skyline of a city.

For us each project and each client is special. Smaller projects with a limited budget may often require the greatest amount of imaginative effort. There is always the appreciation for small details, well done, which every craftsman feels and understands.

From 2009 onwards three landmark towers will be completed that will impact London’s skyline. These towers are British Land’s Broadgate Tower, Heron’s Bishopsgate Tower and Sellar Property Group’s the Shard at London Bridge, shown opposite, that will be London’s tallest.

Lerch Bates have and continue to play a key role in the design and delivery of these landmark buildings containing as they will the world’s first implementation of the next generation of double deck lift systems. So-called 3-D (double deck destination) control systems will dispense with many of the perceived negative aspects of the now old-fashioned 3-C (conventional collective control) double deck lift systems and for the first time enable beneficial use of a “destination hall call” control system on double deck lifts.

Consultants at Lerch Bates planned to deploy these new control systems five or more years before they became commercially available for these buildings. Our insight enabled us to plan to adopt the most efficient solutions achievable knowing that we could realise this technology in partnership with one or more of the major lift contractors who would be prepared to develop the control systems needed to recognise the many benefits of 3-D control.

The first project to complete is the Broadgate Tower and you can read more about this project by accessing this report (PDF). The “ground breaking” work we are doing today on these projects simply reinforces our reputation as the industry’s leading consultants by virtue of the insight, ingenuity, inventiveness and innovation we deploy in the service of our clients and their projects.