If you've ever been annoyed by the impatiently waiting for an office building elevator, this might just be the perfect building for you. Each of the new elevators installed by Mitsubishi Electric in Umeda Hankyu Building’s new office area in Osaka, Japan measures 11.2 x 9.2 feet in area by 8.5 feet high (3.4m wide, 2.8m long and 2.6m high). This allows for a whopping 80 person capacity, or over 11,500 pounds (specifically a 5,250kg load according to the company). Do some quick math, and that means that these five elevators alone can move up to 400 people at once.
And if you think that being crammed into an elevator with 79 other people sounds a little uncomfortable, take solace in the fact that the car does have glass windows, allowing you to enjoy the view as you're going up. The elevator connects the lower department store portion of the building, on floors B2 through 13, and the upper offices, from floors 15 through 41.
When I asked a Mitsubishi representative if this was indeed the world's largest elevator, he could only confirm that "these are the largest capacity passenger elevators to date in Japan". In my own personal research, I have yet to find a bigger one worldwide.
The photo reminds me a little of the elevator in the starport in the movie, \"Galaxy Quest.\"
Forget needing to step out of the car and into the office. On an episode of \"Unnatural History\", someone who needed to get somewhere really quickly simply drove his Smart Car straight into the building\'s elevator! he also drove it down a hallway. If Japan\'s big on Smart Cars, they might be the final mechanical component needed in your mobile office vision.