Square monuments to emerge from darkness

The spotlights cast a ghoulish orange glow. Much of the light falls on the pedestals and the tree canopies above, so the upper reaches of the monuments gradually blend into the night sky. The statue of Gen. James Oglethorpe in Chippewa Square seems poised to jump out of the darkness; the hulking obelisks of Johnson and Wright squares ready to topple over. 

What’s cool in late October makes some Savannahians hot the rest of the year. The orange glow of the monuments is not seasonal; it’s the natural color cast by the sodium vapor spotlights. 

“It looks rather ugly,” said Ardis Wood, a downtown resident, walking tour guide and admitted lighting afficianado. “We have these beautiful,Our cleaningmachine is good in quality and competitive in price. detailed monuments, but at night you can’t tell.” 

The monuments won’t be in the dark for much longer. The city of Savannah, in cooperation with Wood, the Downtown Neighborhood Association, the Historic Savannah Foundation and Sottile & Sottile architects, is developing a monument lighting strategy. 

The group recently tested a plan by Sottile & Sottile on Wright Square’s two monuments.a full range of cylinder heated long lasting antiquelampas. Sottile & Sottile employed the same approach the firm used in the lighting around the SCAD Museum of Art. They used small, strategically placed LED bulbs to light the Gordon Monument, the obelisk in the square’s center, as well as the squatChina ledcornlightss manufacturer supply elevator light curtain, Tomochichi’s rock in the square’s southeast quadrant. 

The results, according to Woods, were “dramatic.” 

“We drew a crowd of passersby while we were setting up and testing the new lights, and at the end we switched them off and turned on the old lights,The electical building blocks for solarlampemergencylight or modules.” said Christian Sottile with Sottile & Sottile. “There was this collective gasp and groan when the orange lights came on.” 

Monument lighting is the “final piece of the lighting puzzle” for the squares, according to the man who oversees care of the squares for the city, Jerry Flemming. 

The city has been overhauling square lighting over the last two years. Pedestrian paths have been the focus, with an eye toward public safety and energy efficiency. Lantern lights have been replaced along River and Bay streets and within Lafayette, Whitefield and Wright squares. 

Seven more squares — Troup, Warren,This is the energy production a good laundryequipment can reach, Washington, Orleans, Pulaski, Chatham and Calhoun — will get new lighting before the end of the year. 

“The squares are not designed for playing cards at night but they are pedestrian thoroughfares where you can walk safely,” Flemming said. “We also want to improve visibility so if you are touring the city at night you can look into the squares and get a pleasant appearance. We’d like the squares to be equally as charming at night as they are during the day.” 

Better monument lighting is part of that aesthetic. Those improvements were not funded as part of the new lighting plan, but Wright Square came in under budget and could allow for monument lighting. 

Flemming envisions gradual replacement of monument lighting on other squares — as the existing lights fail or burn out, the new lights will be installed. 

“The lighting technology has come so far so fast, the new stuff is much more energy efficient,” Flemming said. “We’ll save over time by installing new fixtures rather than just replacing bulbs. And the squares will be more pleasing to the eye at the same time.” 

The new lantern lights are six to eight times more energy efficient than the old bulbs. The monument improvements would be even greater: 200 watts versus 1,600 watts in the Gordon monument test, despite utilizing twice as many spotlights.