Taken Mar 2023 and Oct 2015
Savannah, GA
17 pics
SurvivingChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), so can be assumed to be surviving at least as far as that date
as of Mar 2023
The following 4 pics courtesy Jim Terry
8 years on from the when the main sequence of pics here was taken, Jim reports the mall as closed, but as can be seen, the lights are still surviving.
These 4 pics taken 7 Mar 2023.
The Target which served as one of the mall's anchors is still open. This is a view from inside the Target, of the former entrance to the mall. If you look further down on this page, there is a pic of the other side of this entrance from the mall side.
As can be seen, most of the stores are shuttered but other than that, the interior looks largely untouched. According to some sources, the mall finally closed in Janurary of 2023. The anchors are still open, but the mall's future is uncertain.
The lighting looks largely unchanged from when we visited in 2015 and is still partially functioning, although the lack of maintenance is ongoing. A mercury lit indoor space in 2023 is a very rare sight, but this sight's days are numbered.
04 Oct 2015
SurvivingChecked on "as of" date (either in person or via latest GSV available), so can be assumed to be surviving at least as far as that date
as of Mar 2023
These are our original pics of the Savannah Mall, when it was open. It is an enclosed mall at the "opposite" end of Savannah, on Abercorn St (GA-204) between Rio Road and Apache Ave. It was built in 1990, and despite (according to some sources) having a renovation in 2008, the majority of lighting is still mercury. This is very unusual for a US mall in (at the time of writing) 2018.
If you get the fullsize picture above, you will see the etch on the Sylvania coated 100W mogul base ED shape mercury lamp. Most of the decorative fixtures in the mall are Lumec. As these fixtures are not sealed, the high humidity in this part of the world has caused quite a bit of condensation to collect in the fixture. The heat from the lamp is not enough to evaporate it, evidently.
05 Oct 2015
A view of the mall entrance. Virginia College has taken space in the mall since 2011. The globes on each side of the glass are the 100W mercury units seen in the previous picture.
05 Oct 2015
Inside the entrance, and all the cans are mercury as can be seen from the slight greenish cast on the floor.
05 Oct 2015
There are a lot of the globe fixtures like the one in the first picture- here's a few of them lit. Unfortuantely maintenance is not too good of these fixtures- a lot of them are out as can be seen.
05 Oct 2015
Almost all of the small diameter ceiling cans are mrecury.
05 Oct 2015
The second floor of the main drag, mercury cans and globe fixtures.
05 Oct 2015
One the upper floor, more of the mercury globes light the atrium, again with several out. Due to access being difficult, it is quite possible that many of these fixtures have
never been relamped since 1990 when the mall was opened. That would make them 28 years old at the time of writing, maybe 120,000 hours of use. The other, perhaps more likely, option
is that when the mall was refurbished in 2008 the lighting was changed then, and these fixtures were installed then. That would mean abot 43,000 hours on the lamps, still well past their
design life of 24,000 hours.
05 Oct 2015
In the food court, a mixture of HPS uplighters, mercury globes, and if you look carefully, a couple of clear mercury bullet accent lights.
05 Oct 2015
A view of both floors, showing the Lumec twin arm decorative poles which are also mercury.
05 Oct 2015
Can't remember if this was just before closing time and they were turning the lights off, or if this is just an exposure issue!
This picture shows not all the globes are out completely, some have just dimmed and shifted to green, which is what end of life mercury lamps do.
05 Oct 2015
Another atrium, with large and small diameter mercury ceiling cans.
05 Oct 2015
One end of the main drag, the non working cans typical of the whole mall.
05 Oct 2015
A final view of the first floor, showing all the different type of mercury fixture present.
As this part of the world is not too bothered about energy saving, it's possible these mercury lights might survive in the short term, at least...time will tell.
As this part of the world is not too bothered about energy saving, it's possible these mercury lights might survive in the short term, at least...time will tell.