Interior · Expertise
Lift Lobbies & Interiors
Seen more than any wall in the building.
Nobody photographs a lift lobby, and everybody stands in one. It is the surface a hotel’s guests see more often than any other, at close range, while waiting.
A lift lobby is a small room with a great deal of metal in it: the door surrounds, the doors themselves, the call panel, the wall the doors sit in, and very often the ceiling. All of it is at arm’s length, all of it is touched, and all of it is seen by every guest several times a day.
That closeness is what decides the finish. A brushed grain reads as quiet and forgives the hundred fingerprints a day; a mirror finish shows every one of them. Brass and bronze in a lobby are chosen for how they age under hands, because they will be handled.
The surround has to meet the lift manufacturer’s door on a tolerance that leaves no visible gap and no edge to catch — which means the drawing is done with the lift contractor, not after them. Panels are sized so that a damaged one can be replaced without disturbing its neighbours, because in a hotel something will hit them.
The same language is carried along the corridor: skirting, a dado line, the door frames to the rooms. A lobby that is finished in bronze and a corridor that is not reads as two projects.
Why this is drawn with the lift contractor
The lift arrives with its own doors, its own frame and its own tolerances, and the architectural surround has to close onto them without a gap you can see or an edge you can feel. That is a coordination drawing before it is a metalwork drawing. Done in the right order, the surround is measured off the installed lift frame and made to fit it; done in the wrong order, it is made to a drawing and then made to fit on site, which is where the shims and the sealant come from.
The second thing to settle early is access. Every panel near a lift will be hit by a trolley eventually. If a single damaged panel can come off and be replaced, the lobby stays looking new for the life of the hotel; if the panels are one welded piece, the first dent is permanent.
How it is built
Where it is used
- Lift door surrounds and architraves
- Lift door cladding and call-panel housings
- Lift lobby wall cladding and feature walls
- Lobby ceilings and light coves
- Corridor skirting, dado and door-frame details
- Matching cladding for service and fire doors
Photographs
Lift lobbies we have made
From the workshop and from finished interiors. Click a picture to see it larger.
Product catalogue
Lift lobbies: what we make
Questions & answers
Questions about lift lobbies
When should lift lobby cladding be measured?
After the lift is installed. The surround has to close onto the lift manufacturer’s own frame with no visible gap and no edge to catch, and the only reliable dimension is the one taken from the frame that is actually there. Measured from a drawing, it is made to fit on site — which is where the shims and the sealant come from.
Can a damaged lobby panel be replaced on its own?
If the cladding was designed in panels that hang individually, yes: the damaged one comes off and a new one goes on, and the lobby keeps looking new for the life of the building. If it was made as one welded surface, the first dent is permanent. In a hotel lobby, something will hit the wall eventually, so this is decided at the outset.
More interior work
Often specified together
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Have something extraordinary in mind?
Send a drawing, a sketch, or a photograph of something close to it. We will tell you what is buildable, what it costs and how long it takes.