Barclays Center Features 40-Foot-Long Elevator, Spinning Floor Underground
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When Barclays Center opened in October we thought we saw all the bells and whistles. But there's some cool stuff underground, including an elevator that can hold 80,000 pounds and a spinning floor used to park buses. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.With no ramp to access the underground parking lot, buses at Barclays center use a 15-foot-wide, 40-foot-long elevator.
When they arrive some two stories down, there's no room for them to turn. So what turns is the floor.
"We're going to have to spin this wheel and park that bus," said Anthony Geigel, a staff member at Barclays Center. "We'll spin it and pull it into dock 3. That's basically what we do. It's huge, but we do it."
With the flip of a switch, the floor spins. The bus is moved into position and then put into reverse to back up into a parking spot.
"This is an 80-foot diameter turntable. It can hold 100,000 pounds," said Bob Sanna, executive vice president of Forest City Ratner Co. "So the buses and trucks can come in and then spin, spin around, much like a merry-go-round or like an old-fashioned trolley train turntable, and it can rotate them 360 degrees."
Barclays Center gave NY1 a time-lapse video as the turntable was being constructed. The mechanism is used in warehouse facilities, but not in arenas up until now.
But because of Barclays Center's tight footprint, it's needed here to spin ambulances, players' cars, trucks and buses, all coming through one of the two freight elevators. About three games a week are played here. Then, there are the concerts.
"They come with many, many trucks to build the stage and all the settings," Sanna said. "So one of those shows can have 8, 10 trucks come in, unload all the things to assemble the stage, the sound systems, and then load out."
When Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus comes to Barclays Center next month, guess how they're going to get the elephants in the building?
The elevators hold 80,000 pounds. When the circus arrives, they'll be transporting elephants up and down daily.
"We need to take them out for walks during the day, so they'll take the truck elevators," said Chip Foley, technology director for Forest City Ratner Co. "We'll take them up the elevators, and they'll do their walk around Brooklyn."
That will be quite a sight, along with the spinning parking lot.