The historic basketball arena now known as the StateFarm Center opened as Assembly Hall in 1963. It was renamed as part of the major renovation project that started after the 2013-2014 University of Illinois basketball season and was completed in December of 2016 at the cost of $169.5 million dollars. The Murphy Elevator Company’s part of this project was to upgrade the 2 existing hydraulic elevators and add 4 brand new elevators.
Our Solution
The existing building had only one service elevator and one passenger elevator., both hydraulic units. Murphy Elevator added 3 Machine Room-Less (MRL) elevators and one additional hydraulic elevator. The elevator shafts had to be built inside the existing building. The elevators are situated around the perimeter of the building. Due to the dome shape, overhead space was extremely limited. In some cases, a fairly unusual three speed side slide door was used due to space constraints. One one particular case, the clearances were so small a notch in I-Beam had to be cut to accommodate the elevator door opening at the top floor. The elevator part of this project took 18 months to complete.
