For Immediate Release
 Mercy’s Three-Story Cross Gets Green Facelift
Oklahoma City — After spring storms damaged Mercy’s
2,400-pound, 30-foot-tall revolving cross, plans got underway to
re-design and re-engineer a brand-new cross. In keeping with Mercy’s
green efforts, the newly installed cross is illuminated with LEDs
(light-emitting diodes) which consume less energy and have a longer
lifespan.
“Because of new LED flood light technology, this is
a first for Oklahoma,” said Tom Peterson, Mercy’s director of support
services. “It’s also an eco-friendly cross that uses less than a quarter
of the electricity as our old fluorescent cross.”
The white rotating cross that tops Mercy Health
Center’s Tower building has been a landmark to many a traveler since
1987 when it was installed. Since then it has only been removed twice
for refurbishing. When the cross came down in 1995 for renovations, an
airline pilot called and inquired why it had been removed. “The legend
is that pilots use it as a landmark when flying into Oklahoma City and
he and other pilots with various airlines offered to donate money to
have it reinstalled if it was a money issue,” said Peterson. “They said
the cross was a comforting sight upon approach to Oklahoma City.”
The new high-tech cross includes a system that
measures wind speeds. The cross “parks” or stops whenever wind speeds
exceed 40 mph to reduce the wear on gears. Similar to how a windmill
works, the cross stops whenever the face is 90 degrees from the main
wind direction. Twirling 20 times an hour, the cross rotates about
175,200 times a year and has made more than 3.5 million revolutions
since its installation.
Press release dated: September 16, 2009
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