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Filmed on April 27th, 2022 with @geneseetrainselevators2448.
Sadly, these elevators, what were among Rochester's most beloved elevators that @DieselDucy and @jimster586 discovered and got several videos of 10-12 years ago have since been completely destroyed by Otis :(. As I'm sure everyone knows, these elevators were originally Otis Autotronic Elevators with Square Touch/Heat Sensitive buttons (before that Manually Controlled) dating back to the Late 1950s/Early 1960s (depending on the bank of elevators in the building) and this building was known as "The Sibley Building", built in 1904, with the 12 story portion of the building which was added in 1911 referred to as "Sibley Tower". This building originally operated as a Department Store with the Tower portion added as Additional Store Space with Offices on the Upper Floors, and the elevators were all Manually Controlled Otises. That was until the Mid to Late 1950s and/or Early 1960s when the elevators were all Automated and Replaced with Otis Autotronic Elevators (this particular bank was from the 60s as suggested by the fact these have/had the Square Touch Call Stations as opposed to the Arrow ones) and they remained like this up until a few years ago (minus the fact the COPs and call stations on some of the elevators were replaced with Adams when the building was converted into solely office space in the 1990s.)
Well, fast forward to 2016 the Sibley Building/Tower complex that we all knew and loved closed for MAJOR Renovations which converted the entire Tower portion and parts of the former department store into Apartments, and also renovated the majority of the department store portion into Modern Office Space as well as Retail Space. The Apartment sections of the building and modernized offices have opened in phases in Early 2018 and 2020, and the retail area of the building is still under construction.
There were a Total of 5 banks of Autotronic Elevators here at Sibleys, and as of now, 4 of the 5 banks (both 12 story banks included) are modded now. And not only were most of the elevators in the building modded, but some of them have been decommissioned. 2 of the elevators in the Service Elevator bank directly behind this elevator bank as well as 1 of the elevators in this bank (in addition to the MCC Express Car which has been decommissioned for MANY years) are now decomissioned, and one of the three elevators in the bank of 3 Main Tower Elevators was totally ripped out and replaced by a Single Gen2 Elevator that serves the Liberty Lofts.
The elevators shown in this video are the only publicly accessible modded elevators in the building as the others are now either locked or behind locked doors as they now serve Apartments. However, I was able to get some photos of the other banks from the other side of the glass from where they were.
The elevators here in the video I did get to ride are the 2nd bank of 6 story former Department Store elevators with one of the cars serving 10 out of 12 floors of the tower. The Modernization is Ok, the New Cabs do look quite nice, however, the New fixtures are very generic and look WAY too modern for a building like this and I find it the modernization to also be quite cheap as well and I find it unfortunate that the Autotronic panels weren't even preserved during the modernization either. :(
The mod could've been worse however, and did I mention that 4 out of 5 banks of elevators in the building are modded and not all of them? Stay tuned for the video regarding that tommorrow (uploaded 1 day after this video was posted)! But in the meantime, enjoy some very tragically ruined modded elevators at Sibley's.....
Installed/Replaced in Circa Late 1950s and Early 1960s. (Fully Replaced Manual Otis Elevators from 1904 and 1912; Otis Autotronic with Square Touch/Heat Sensitive Buttons, 3 of the banks dated back to the 50s and had Arrow touch call buttons, this bank and the bank behind it had Square touch call stations.)
Modernized in Circa 2017-2018 (Otis Series M2 Fixtures with New Motors, New Controllers, New Cabs and New Annunciators. Only the lanterns and outside doors left as is. Some elevators were decommissioned, Lobby call stations on elevators shown in video left original, but no longer work) and 2020 (1 of the 3 Main Tower Elevators, fully replaced with a New Otis Gen2 Elevator,
was originally decommissioned in 2017-2018 when the other 2 elevators in the bank were modernized.)