Application: Memorial

Location: Coit Tower, San Francisco, CA

Product: METALARC^® and COMPACT METALARC^®

SYLVANIA HID Product Marketing Manager:       Jim LaPointe

METALARC^® Installation by OSRAM SYLVANIA improves visibility & reduces maintenance costs for Coit Tower

The Situation

The Coit Tower, a monument erected in the early 1930’s in memory of Lillie Hitchcock-Coit, is a memorial tribute to San Francisco firefighters. This 180-foot cylindrical tower stands atop Telegraph Hill.

Who was Lillie Hitchcock? She was a very unusual teenager back in the 1850’s and the daughter of a West Point army doctor who moved his family to San Francisco in 1851. One day after school, Lillie noticed that the volunteer fire department was short staffed as they raced to a fire on Telegraph Hill, so she dropped her books and helped pulled the ropes to get Knickerbocker 5 engine up the slope.  After this day, whenever she heard the fire alarm sound, she would dash out to volunteer. On October 3, 1863 she became an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Company. As she became older, she stopped following the engines, but she continued to have a special bond with all firefighters. If a fireman became ill, she would visit them.  Floral tributes were sent when a fireman passed away as a final expression of her regard for them.

After her death in 1929, she left a third of her fortune to the city of San Francisco and requested that the money “be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved.” A few years after her death, the Coit Tower was built with these funds. A second memorial, a life-sized sculpture of a group of three firemen, was unveiled at Washington Square in 1933.

Jim LaPointe, HID product marketing manager for OSRAM SYLVANIA, felt that SYLVANIA METALARC metal halide lighting products would improve the visual appearance of this landmark and would help reduce their maintenance costs.

The Solution

SYLVANIA LIGHTING SERVICES (SLS) conducted a lighting audit at the Coit Tower and recently replaced all the high-intensity discharge lamps that light up the outside perimeter of the tower. The METALARC metal halide lamps were donated by OSRAM SYLVANIA and the labor was provided free of charge by SLS.

The upper tower is lit with eight floodlight fixtures with METALARC 175-watt BT28 lamps recessed in the ledge just above the main viewing deck. The area above the secondary deck just below the main viewing deck is lit with eight floodlight fixtures with COMPACT METALARC 250-watt ET18 lamps also recessed in a ledge. Sixteen COMPACT METALARC 400-watt ET18 lamps in wall wash fixtures highlight the base of the monument and the lower landing. There are an additional two wall wash fixtures above the lower landing near the front entrance.

The new SYLVANIA METALARC lamps have brightened the visual appearance for evening viewing. Although the SYLVANIA METALARC lamps have similar initial lumens compared to the competitor lamps replaced, the 175 and 250-watt lamps have better maintained lumens, resulting in higher luminance over time.

The major advantage of the SYLVANIA METALARC lamps is their longer life, 25 percent to 66 percent longer than the lamps previously installed. This will extend the average relamp interval by 1-2 years, which will reduce their maintenance costs.

“I have driven by the Coit Tower in the evening since the relamp with SYLVANIA lamps and the tower appears to be very well lit,” said Bill Gunn, Electrical Supervisor for the City of San Francisco Parks  “ The longer lasting lamps also will reduce the number of lamps that we will need to purchase and install in the future. That’s a plus for us.”