Elevator Expert on How to Move 10,000 People Up a 118-Floor Skyscraper | WSJ Pro Perfected

The global elevator and escalator market is expected to be over $145 billion by 2027 as skylines increasingly become taller. The Merdeka 118 building in Malaysia will become the world’s second tallest skyscraper in 2024 at 2,233 feet. But how do the elevators efficiently transport more than 10,000 people up and down the building every day?
WSJ spoke with an elevator engineer expert who breaks down the strategies and challenges that come with designing an elevator system to service each of the Malaysian skyscraper’s 118 floors.
0:00 Elevators in skyscrapers
0:53 Optimizing for traffic flow
2:28 How to handle capacity
4:44 Speed of elevator
5:29 Innovations
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[@WallmartSupport]

I've been to Malaysia last year. The country was so developed! The people were nice and friendly! And the food was spectacular! I highly recommend this country for your next holiday!

[@tortillawrapper5454]

Im a malaysian and no we are not developed as a nation.. so many racism, corruption, stop lying for likes

[@Nabila-dx8xf]

where are you from. thanks but we are not that developed

[@irishque]

​@@Nabila-dx8xfjealous konoha???

[@stigonboard5751]

@@Nabila-dx8xfwhy you Indonesian so jealous?

[@Nabila-dx8xf]

@@stigonboard5751 i am malaysians.

[@dchfoong]

Absolutely fascinating. I was just in KL last month and this structure is, needless to say, an imposing and impressive sight on the city’s skyline. The engineering behind this is just mind-boggling!

[@semsem4035]

Kuala Lumpur is such a beautiful and super diverse city. I expect it to be one of the top cities in entire Asia in terms of infrastructure and tourism.

[@SonnyDarvishzadeh]

KL is amazing! I'd love to move back and live there permanently!

[@TedPatrickBaird]

I'm currently traveling through Malaysia so this is absolutely fascinating

[@lelongbashi]

It was fascinating. But this building is not yet ready. I hear Apple Retail store will open in Merdeka 118.

[@lkh-xj1ck]

​@@lelongbashiNot at Merdeka 118, but at Tun Razak Exchange, TRX is also still under construction.

[@privacyprincess]

I hope you've visited the PETRONAS Twins aldy. If you havent and planning to, lemme know 😁

[@ryanwong529]

Malaysian big welcome you.

[@imanabdullah3263]

Exactly especially looking at it from Chow kit or Bukit Bintang

[@johndoe09]

I been to malaysia. Im so surprised the country so developed. It looks like a first world country similar to canada and Australia.

[@shahmizulfanshahrein3953]

Shh keep quiet, we Malaysian love to be unknown to the world 😂, btw welcome to our beautiful Muslim country 🙌🏼, come again!

[@sabahandiKL]

little you know, we in Malaysia actually still live in tree. the skyscrapers u saw is only for show

[@d9zirable]

Come to sabah lol

[@JORDI_JDT_VERSI.3]

I want Malaysia to be underrated 😂😂

[@kindashin]

come to sabah, we ride a crocodile for transportation and we live up on a tree and still hunt for foods! very fascinating here!

[@rmnvldz_]

I've been in the Burj Khalifa, and I was the last one who entered the elevator, so I had the doors behind me. And I can hear the wind passing thru the door like I was on a highway. Amazing.

[@k.k.c8670]

That's bad implementations, I believe. Although at 'only' 400+m tall, Jinmao tower in Shanghai also had that problem 20 years ago but they fixed it

[@MagnumCarta]

This guy made a good elevator pitch. I'd buy whatever he's selling.

[@ridhwanasri5913]

Merdeka 118 is owned by PNB, investment company in Malaysia. PNB has net income of RM11 billion and assets up to RM322 billion.

[@Nabila-dx8xf]

but this building is rm5 billion. Means they only have 6 billion left

[@HusseinDoha]

Just visited Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. You can’t help but to notice it.

[@sykewtf9820]

im sure its even more beautiful in person😩

[@oeil_dr01t]

​@@sykewtf9820It is really beautiful. Looks like a tower from a Marvel Comics in real lige

[@highcal9936]

It is so tall that you dont have to be in kuala lumpur to see it 😂

[@HOPECOUNTYXY]

​@@highcal9936yeah even in Petaling Jaya you can see it

[@ubobcat]

​@@oeil_dr01tor like the Citadel from Half Life 2. Very impressive!

[@Zichoe]

now that's the tallest panorama elevator in the world, can't imagine slowly going to the top and looking at the city's skyline, it must have been breathtaking!!

[@TheRealLink]

It travels at 8m/s so it's still pretty fast! But yeah I believe the interior elevators are 10m/s, same as Burj Khalifa. Neither are world record speed anymore but still incredibly fast to be on.

[@zo3478]

Skyline? KL has some of the world's worst urban planning, the city doesn't even have a defined urban core or consistent skyline. Instead of spending billions on big tall buildings they should've started with at minimum basic pedestrian paths on the street.

[@Zichoe]

@@zo3478 have you visit kl?

[@ghrbaa6727]

@@zo3478 so can you give me example of fantastic American skyline where I can enjoy the beautiful skyline by looking at the pedestrian paths? You're not making any sense, you're just hating.

[@zo3478]

@@ghrbaa6727 Unlike in the developing world, US cities were planned and designed with strict regulation which includes zoning, height restrictions and so on. This concentrated the majority of business activity in the city center, creating places which were built on the human scale. In the developing world, many cities such as KL have only started to modernize after the invention of the automobile which led to mass road construction with pedestrian facilities and public transport being left as an after thought. That's why it's almost impossible to walk from one place to another in KL. Everything is spaced out too far and only linked by 8 lane arterial roads.

[@ameerizzat9945]

Proud to be Malaysian

[@amirism91]

im so proud as malaysian.

[@mcmac9565]

the panorama elevators are not the only elevators to service the entire building..i think they r mainly for tourist attraction..the main elevators are located at the core of the building which will primarily serve the occupants.

[@Zichoe]

Didn't you watch the video at 1:33

[@SERGIO-cr6uy]

Thanks WSJ for the interesting video. The amount of engineering to build them skyscrapers is unbelievable.

[@KelvinReiChannel]

Congratulations Malaysia from Indonesia

[@testingvrom372]

Thanks from malaysia i hope indonesia will be top 1 economy in asia

[@redmi9anio]

🇲🇾 ...its shaped after Malaysia's Tunku Rahman's body posture standing and raising his hand while shouting out loud the word "Merdeka" meaning freedom during Malaya's indepedance from colonial British and this tower stands next to Stadium Merdeka where the Merdeka declaration was held. Also, this tower stands next to Stadium Merdeka where the historical event took place. Well, yes putting in lifts (elevators) was a challenge and difficult. 😅😆

[@suhandatanker]

Please keep Malaysia underrated.

[@mikelons3000]

Please add meters for the other 7.7 Billion people on this planet that don't use freedom units

[@rpm749]

what do you mean? i thought world was a country in america?

[@arpitjain2591]

🦅

[@g00rb4u]

They're not big on details; 3:30 she claims they have “over 35 of them”. You can't count how many elevators there are or ask the expert you're interviewing?

[@EvilBaggOBolts]

Malaysia has 3 of the 20 highest buildings in the world

[@90taetaeya]

All by putting needles on top of them 😂

[@khai1213]

@@90taetaeya really? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exchange_106

[@Iceyfire12]

Yea But Malaysia isn’t really Malaysian lol! Its Indian Chinese Bangladeshis

[@PlantaBoY95]

​@@90taetaeyaalot of other buildings in the top 20 do that, sooo...are you implying they're cheating too? Even Burj Khalifa has a 244m tall spire.

[@PlantaBoY95]

​@@Iceyfire12LOL, if they are Malaysian, so what? As if in other countries don't have different races. Look at the USA, Singapore, Canada, Australia etc. They have many people of other races living in their country. Are they not their country's citizens if they are born and raised there?

[@TheArtificiallyIntelligent]

Am I the only one that didn't know about the hydraulic elevators? I assumed they all used ropes.

[@my_MillenniumFalcon]

The views from Lobby to the Observation Deck via the scenic elevators will indeed be stunning, when the tower finally opens! 👏

[@timjunloke7183]

Fantastic!! Hopefully tourists will come to our country!🔥 I'm from Malaysia 🇲🇾

[@whatsadog2445]

There's no good reason to come to KL

[@monstermind1]

​@@whatsadog2445makkau hijau

[@rikiriki6018]

@@whatsadog2445no, please dont come, like seriously 🎉🎉🎉

[@demonizedlife2640]

​@@whatsadog2445There's no good reason to come to any country really

[@5mpv2011]

​@@whatsadog2445of course if you're illegal

[@lerastructuralengineers]

Great to see the innovations behind the building being featured! Structural engineering on Merdeka 118 by LERA Consulting Structural Engineers

[@mingchenzhang3113]

That building looks like a stealth frigate from the expanse.

[@paxundpeace9970]

So Underrated. Glad it get's reported on.

[@robmcbrien7121]

That line of work definitely has its ups and downs

[@gixellia8455]

Excellent presentation, thank you!

[@iz00-zv3ck]

Klcc, KL Tower, Exchange 106 & now Merdeka 118 as the highest building in the country. Proud Malaysian

[@adamkee97]

I have used a similar elevator system in the Maybank Tower.

[@stevens1041]

I would much rather live in a medium rise city like Barcelona. I was obsessed with skyscrapers like this as a teenager, until I had to work in one for many years. Skyscrapers aren't great. But the engineering of this building is impressive, same with the much more beautiful Petronas Towers.

[@Aeybiseediy]

I agree. I used to day dream about living in a tall building. But I guess this type of lifestyle is simply not for me after living at an 11th floor (only) apartment unit. I hate waiting and having to use the lifts to go up and down the building as if my life depended on it.. doesn't matter if the lift is sophisticated or not because I still ended up being squished like sardines inside that box with strangers especially during peak hours. I rather live in a landed house even though its a bit far from the city centre...

[@Dayvit78]

I already learned about elevators from this SimOffice Tower game a long time. Hotel guests check in and out at certain times, office workers at other times. You fix your elevators to rest on the relevant floors with express mode turned on, etc. Fun times.

[@wolger]

Happy Malaysia Day and Independence Day Malaysia!

[@SoCalFreelance]

Finally! Star Trek turbolift multi-vector elevators realized.

[@KingLarbear]

I'm glad this is free unlike your news on the internet

[@ROBLOXGamingDavid]

Even if some said it may be a waste financially (as people in Malaysia said that), so long as it does perform well it will be good but either way, i like skyscrapers.

[@lumoneko299]

There’s always a financial risk with these buildings, especially with the global decrease in office space demand. It’s easy to overshoot the local office demand and over supply, leading to higher vacancies, thus making the building unable to recoup its investment in a reasonable timeframe. It happened with the Shanghai Tower where for the first few years of its operations, it was basically just the hotel and observation deck running.

[@ViolentCabbage-ym7ko]

@@lumoneko299 Mega structures are not only meant for office space and hotels but it serves as an icon to attract investors and tourists. A good example is the Petronas twin towers which is a very popular destination for first time travelers in Malaysia

[@cmfad7427]

Oh my Allah... I live in KL babe...i forgot that merdeka118 elevator so amazing tech❤❤❤

[@SimonTmte]

"Over half of the worlds population live in city centers, according to the UN by 2025 it will be almost 70%",..I believe that to be 2050 and not 2025

[@AnP865]

Staying in a hotel currently with the worst elevator programming ever, it's remarkable how frustrating it is on so many levels

[@FullLengthInterstates]

At some point as these megastructures get bigger it has to be more efficient to run paternoster-style elevators through the shafts. This whole video is like if a train service tried to be really creative running rail lines on multiple disconnected single tracks. It is much more efficient in terms of space/ capacity to dedicate each lane of traffic to 1 way, upgrading an hourly commuter rail into frequent rapid transit.

[@addium3151]

With the speed limitations of those elevators you are going to take 30 min to reach the top.

[@alexmaidens1603]

have you factored in journeys between floors?

[@byteme9718]

Good luck with the fraction of a second as they fly past. Body parts and blood everywhere.

[@daytooth134]

Wow loved to see the skytower where i live be featured!

[@jintanmanis5000]

Cant wait for the new skyscraper eventhough im Malaysian & i dont (yet) go on top of the world famous Petronas Twin Towers😂😂😂😂

[@Shadow__133]

1 ton per 13 people? In Sudan, maybe. Definitely not in America 🇺🇸 🍔 🥤 🍟 😂😂😂

[@zinabuzarin9991]

We Msian preferred our country to be underrated, now more and more people's coming to Msia to look our culture and our life here.

[@semsem4035]

Calm down, kak. Calm down.

[@_helmi]

I live in a 38-floor residential building in KL where KONE supplies and maintains our lifts (5-6 car system, total around 30 cars). Can confirm, they are fast. However, the system suffers huge drop in performance whenever one or more car stops working.

[@fared___3409]

So its constantly need to be on maintenance?

[@TrogdorElite6]

This looks my elevator layout in sims tower from back in the day. Must have been a good simulator.

[@sentiasatransformasi]

i pass by the building everyday. its very high n big but i still can't have an emotional connection w it like klcc

[@user-of7jy1kv4c]

the quickest elevator I ever had was the one in the world trade center in NYC in 1989.

[@AzzrudinJamil]

No, It was in 2001.

[@someoneinasia]

love how the length of the "antenna" is 1/4 of the tower. i just find it weird to be called taller than shanghai tower.

[@aslahazlan1721]

Next time trying to build a sky scraper don't forget the long antenna 😢

[@miszgreenwich3069]

Malaysia is very good at bending the rules. The same incident happened back in late 90's with the Petronas Twin Towers. At that time, the Petronas Twin Towers was considered as the tallest tower in the world. However, Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) in Chicago had more than 100 floors, more than Petronas (only 88 floors) and was taller if its height included the the tip of the communication antennas installed at the top of the tower. But the Petronas Twin Towers' spires was much taller and is not a communication antenna, but an aesthetic part of the building. Therefore, the Petronas Twin Towers won the title of the tallest tower in the world (1998 to 2004).

[@rikiriki6018]

Not weird at all. As a structural engineer, antenna installed at PNB 118 is also consider as a structural elements too

[@someoneinasia]

@@rikiriki6018 0:13 it doesn't look blended in. even from other side it looks like an afterthought that only exist to get the no.2 spot. the skyscraper looks more beautiful without it.

[@rikiriki6018]

@@someoneinasia your main argument was “it is weird to be called taller than shanghai” and suddenly your tone changed. If you talk about aesthetic, you should’ve said about the architectural elements, facade and what not… not about the height. The owner of this building approved the architect’s idea and finds it beautiful. If you find it not suits to your likings, then you may fund and built another tower based on how you like it.

[@monstermind1]

Malaysia Boleh! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

[@kathy4g565]

Great job Steve!!

[@shrivastaw]

TK elevators! makes it sound like a mom and pop shop, where in fact it’s a heavyweight- Thyssenkruip.

[@bukitkatilmp]

Yeah thats a massive company!

[@zerosanworld]

My friends, come to Malaysia, experience Malaysia by yourself. We welcome you.

[@ChiakiShirakawa]

The elevator in a role similar to Jack and the Beanstalk's vine. It seems to be also symbolic in Disney animation where replaced with Hair and God. I think that Goma prayer, miniature garden therapy, may be placed in the same position.

[@Indian_Rajput]

And that thin tower at the building is 160m itself which is itself a Skyscraper, As any building from 150m is called skyscraper

[@Zichoe]

Yeah the spire only is a skyscraper but it doesn't count because it's not 50% habitable, so the whole building + spire is the skyscraper because it has more than 50% habitable

[@ViolentCabbage-ym7ko]

@@Zichoe If spire doesn't count, why is the Burj Khalifa the tallest skyscraper in the world?

[@Zichoe]

@@ViolentCabbage-ym7ko read my comment again mate

[@lakanharayadima36]

Can you please state it also in metric system 😅

[@ybemad]

All that glass!!! It'll take so much energy to keep that cooled and it doesn't need to be that way

[@jenbarcher]

Amazingly complex yet well explained. Can anyone tell me what pens he was using?

[@natalieholding986]

They look like Pentel Touch Brush and Sakura Pigma Brush pens 😊

[@fared___3409]

Cant wait to visit the obsevation deck or stay at the hotel there when its finished.

[@thomasv.5100]

It’d be nice if you always indicated the distance with meters and weight with kilograms.

[@aliasrehbar9693]

Malaysia is underrated vs its neighbouring countries like Singapore, or thailand

[@sampindo2]

Huh!! I wasn't expecting to see a photo of the Auckland Skytower 😂 what a delightful surprise

[@smorris1097]

"Give credit where credit is due..." (Said actress Lorretta Young). Barker Mohandas was the technical consulting firm that designed the vertical transportation system (elevators/lifts and escalators) for Merdeka 118, along with an innovation to the elevator industry's standard destination control or dispatching system.

[@NicholasNerios]

Maybe electromagnetic elevator tracks?? Maybe external roller-coasters, who doesn't like a rollercoaster ride.

[@AfiqSeth7]

Kuala Lumpur are under construction city wait for another 10 years a lot more skyscrapers will rise up

[@swilhelm3180]

If the footprint of these tall buildings was much larger they could space the elevators farther apart. That would necessitate more walking but people need the exercise. Making a building so tall and narrow is just stupid. Especially when there are so many together like in Manhattan. A big problem is always natural light. It sure would help if we could somehow figure out how to generate light that really seems natural. It's been a dismal fail so far but hopefully in the future we'll have a breakthrough. Then we won't need windows. And that will give architects a whole new freedom, especially for residential.

[@stevenhoughton1406]

I love videos like this.

[@michi19935]

please use meters or both

[@anshulgupta4010]

Amazing video

[@IndonesianElevatorFilmer]

I thought they would use schindler but it appears they wont.

[@YourLocalMalaysian]

MERDEKA!

[@aimanhakim8658]

Veri nais,welkem tu awer kauntri

[@syarizansulaiman6554]

Malaysia got plenty tallest building 🏢🏢🏢 because most land are preserves especially forest, that why old building 🏫 bring down and later build taller one .

[@7_years_and_]

why can't built a vertical track and electric rollers in elevator like in levitating train . so cable limitation can be avoided.

[@PulunganHadee]

Standing in the Eyes of the World

[@randbarrett8706]

Expert explains docking in the thumbnail

[@flippingnina]

hit the heights! ✈

[@tombranch2261]

They are basically making star trek esque turbolifts.

[@terrorwraith3402]

why people so triggged by the long azz spire? saying its cheating etc . Burj Khalifa literally has longer spire like about 244m long.

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

why dont they make like a ferris wheel type vertical elevator that can go sideways and have multiple elevator cars going around a vertical wheel

[@FullLengthInterstates]

look up paternoster elevators! It's what you're talking about, having 10 cars for 10 floors instead of 1 car for 10 floors is much more efficient. It wouldn't take a lot of technology to modernize the paternoster system to safely transport people in a skyscraper. Very sad wsj decided to go with a weird unproven sideways elevator tech instead of something with much better capacity.

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

@@FullLengthInterstatesit looks like the safety concerns of the paternoster could be solved by making it stop and having doors and detection system like a conventional elevator, but with the structure and multiple cars of the paternoster. i wonder why asian countries dont have it yet

[@ThexMAJ]

Because that would occupy a lot of space that could be used for real estate, you cant waste real estate space

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

​@@ThexMAJ most buildings have a whole hallway of multiple elevators. if they install a modernized paternoster elevator that can stop and have doors with multiple cars, they can potentially half the number of conventional elevators they have. lets say a building plans to install 6 conventional elevators, with a modernized paternoster elevator, they could install 4 instead and the added cars would support the volume of foot traffic.

[@eliroven]

Great video! Shame about leaving out 9/10th of the viewership with the non-metric units. Remember: "The U.S., Myanmar and Liberia are THE ONLY COUNTRIES that still use the imperial system day to day, though the U.S. system has some slight differences." I would imagine, the smart money is on trying to attract and keep viewers...

[@tranducanh-ok]

Antenna building is on the KZbin

[@humanbean5547]

Very interesting video. One statement made at the beginning is misleading, however. While it is, strictly speaking, correct to say that M118 as a whole is the world's second-tallest building, this is due to its absurdly tall spire. The relevant metric when talking about elevators would be highest occupiable floor height. This makes M118 the fifth-tallest building in existence. Still quite an accomplishment, but not exactly the same. It would be interesting to see a comparison of the elevator systems in use in the top 10 supertall skyscrapers (measured by occupiable floor height) to see what has been tried out and what is being learned from different approaches.

[@Aeybiseediy]

You can access the spire and go all the up as an observation deck.. its a structure not an antenna.

[@lilbannetlemao4400]

Its a structure, theres even a observation deck there

[@humanbean5547]

Thank you for pointing this out. Yes, there is a second observation deck in the spire, which makes it a structure, but it is accessible by stairs. The elevator does not go into the spire. As this is a video about elevators, I am focused on the height of the elevator shaft.

[@samsudinali112]

​@@humanbean5547... how many occupied floors are in Shanghai Tower ??? ...

[@FilmBuffBros]

That seems tall...

[@reezevlog]

looks like a giant old Motorola brick mobile fone from afar

[@scipioafricanus4875]

Interesting thanks

[@ViolentCabbage-ym7ko]

How about a space elevator?

[@panzermora902]

Huge!

[@NateWongSongs]

I spent the entire video thinking about falling in an elevator

[@bunga_raya96]

Mer like mermaid - de like day - ka like car. It means independence in malay

[@ytsou]

Interesting

[@norzilahaziz6695]

10 000? woww..it means about 700 tons to be added to total weight..o.man.doesnt it wll be.too heavy for the building to support??

[@spinba11]

My elevator tips ONLY press the button for you direction of travel and ONLY get in when it’s going in that direction

[@azulgreen1]

Amazing ❤

[@jeremyl862]

OMG its a Wonkavator!!

[@zhangdavid6289]

Just simply a operation optimization problem.😅 In a high level, the lesser stops it takes to transport a passenger, the higher of the total efficiency. So this is why you break zones.😅 No fancy algorithms is need if you don’t want to pursue the dynamic best results. (That might involve change in patterns every minutes, which is not economically perfect) So simply record demands in peak and regular time for each floor, add seasonal effects, amortize demands to different elevators. Voila, Done! If data is cleaned, just an half day project for 1 analyst.😅 $300 done

[@MDEDY]

5:09 Singapore's $1 coin

[@jzisers]

That man on thumbnail doing that UwU sign 😆

[@shealupkes]

noticing the massive spire that's the only reason it's so much taller than the shanghai tower which itself wastes several floors for vanity height, they really need to stop treating these titles like they have meaning

[@cemerlang]

Please look at the height of the parapet wall on top of the Shanghai Tower too.

[@michaelmains6785]

​@@cemerlangthe highest occupied floor in Shanghai Tower is still 100m higher than Merdeka.

[@bellatrixlestrange6704]

Lol the spire actually can be accessed by the visitors btw

[@derickndossy]

Metric measurements need to be included!

[@JasonWD]

All these feet and fractions is nuts… 1/10th of a pound… what metric is that?