The San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, and to mark the occasion, it’s getting a new touch of light delivered by LEDs.
Around 25,000 light-emitting diode (LED) lights will be installed across the Bay Bridge’s western span during the course of the next several months; the project is part of a 2-year art installation that pays tribute to the bridge’s anniversary and its colourful history.
Ben Davis: Visionary
Two years after the proposal of the ambitious art project, Ben Davis and his team, The Bay Lights, are finally in the crucial stage of hanging the lights. The group has secured all the necessary permits for the installation of LEDs and has amassed close to $8 million of the funds required to bring his brainchild to life.
According to Davis, the LEDs will finally be strung on the bridge in October, which will culminate in a grand lighting ceremony during the project’s completion in March 2013.
Installation Begins, Artist Leo Villareal on Board
This October, crews will finally begin the task of installing the art project, which was conceptualised by lighting designer Leo Villareal—he has already created similar lighting sculptures and installations in public spaces and museums, and this will be one of his largest yet.
The installation features around 25,000 LED lights, each one programmable and attached to the Bay Bridge’s suspension cables, which span 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometres) of the bridge’s northern section.
The LEDs, designed to work in unison, will display elaborate lighting displays, which will be programmed by Villareal himself.
Cost and Return of Investment
The Bay Lights managed to do the nearly impossible task of amassing over 60 percent of the $8 million in private funding to make the installation possible. Even more impressive is how the group managed to secure permits from various authorities in the San Francisco – Oakridge area.
What’s more, a commissioned study by the project’s organisers project that the installation will help bring in close to $100 million in revenue for San Francisco—the money is predicted to come from visitors coming to view the art installation.
The Bay Lights from Words Pictures Ideas on Vimeo.
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