White Mountain Mall Skylight Consulting

• Location: 2441 Foothill Blvd Rock Springs, WY 82901

  

• Project Type: Consultation
• Project Status: Completed
• Products Used:

Mall Skylight Survey and Consultation

White Mountain Mall is a shopping mall located in Rock Springs, Wyoming owned and managed by Rouse Properties, one of the largest mall owners in the United States. It is one of only three enclosed malls in the entire state of Wyoming.

The mall, which opened in 1978, features over 40 stores. Anchor stores include Herberger’s, JC Penney, Murdochs, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. The White Mountain Mall is also home to the Star Stadium 10 theater.

A skylight consulting inspection was made July 6th 2012 by Skylight Specialists, Inc., represented by Rob Packard.

Skylights of Concern Were the (30) Acrylic Unit Skylights:

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1. (28 ea.) Acrylic Curb Mount Skylights, 7’ x 7’ nominal, white acrylic pyramids. Original to mall construction in 1978.
2. (1 ea.) Acrylic Curb Mount, Tandem Skylight, 4’ x 8’ nominal, consisting of (2) – 4’ x 4’ nominal, clear over clear pyramid. Improvement year: 1987-88.
3. (1 ea.) Acrylic Curb Mount, Tandem Skylights, consisting of (9) – 4’ x 4’ nominal, clear over clear pyramids. Improvement year: 1987-88.

What We Found:

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1. (28 ea.) Acrylic Curb Mount Skylights – skylights are showing their age, yellowing, gaskets falling out, less light transmittance, single layer acrylic. Acrylic is no longer up to code for fall protection. Single layer is energy inefficient.
2. (2 ea.) Acrylic Curb Mount Tandem Skylights – Although newer skylights, these tandem skylights are in worse shape with fogged acrylic, failed gasketing, water being held between layers, numerous attempted repairs.

Recommendations:

Replace all curb mount unit acrylic skylights (28) skylights with new curb mount clear over clear or bronze over clear domed skylights. New skylights should be fall-protection rated.

Tandem skylights should be either replaced or removed (decked and roofed over) as the design is problematic. The smaller tandem can be replaced with a domed unit and eliminate the tandem design, the larger saw-tooth design (shape of curbs) is difficult to work with unless we install a fiberglass translucent sandwich-panel style skylight.