photo credit: John Chacon/California Department of Water Resources
A canvas of light is coming down Sunday after illuminating the western span of the Bay Bridge for 10 years. But with enough donors, it will come “back in a more glorious manifestation,” its founder Ben Davis said.
The Bay Lights have been shining in the Bay Area for many to see despite exposure to grit, grime, and 24/7 vibration over the last decade.
Now it’s time to take them down as they are failing faster than they can be repaired in a cost-effective manner.
“I’m confident that they will come back,” Davis said in a phone interview, explaining what residents might see when they do.
Davis wants more people in the Bay Area to be able to see the lights and he wants drivers to travel through a “portal of public art at night.”
Currently, drivers on the bridge cannot see The Bay Lights except in their rearview mirrors. The proposed project will produce a gently undulating pattern of low-wattage, monochromatic light up to 230 feet overhead for 1.8 miles.
Lights will be wrapped around the cables on the northern side of the western span in the re-creation. Currently, lights are on only one side of the cables.
“There’s a sense of mystery and magic to the piece,” said Leo Villareal, the artist who worked with Davis to create the light installation.
People see the lights and cannot help but say something to the person walking next to them. It binds people together, Villareal said. It’s not about language or imagery but something deeper, he said.
The light patterns produced The Bay Lights never repeat. The original installation took 2.5 years from initial conception to completion, Villareal said.
The challenge, which Davis and others are working on, is to be sure that the new installation does not distract drivers. He is working with traffic engineers and the California Highway Patrol to ensure driver safety.
In the last 10 years, the light installation has not caused a single traffic problem, Davis said, and that’s involving travel on the bridge equivalent to going to the sun and back 40 times.
“It immediately became an iconic image for the Embarcadero, enticing visitors to the city,” said Jill Manton, director of public art trust and special initiatives for the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Manton helped secure approval from the commission and helped write the resolution in support of it for the commission.
After it comes down, it could take eight to 10 months to reinstall following a fundraising campaign that is ongoing. Davis is trying to raise $11 million to fund the project for the next 10 years.
He is looking for 10 donors who can give $1 million each along with $1 million in crowdfunded donations. Details of the efforts so far will be revealed Sunday at 7:45 p.m. at Epic Steak, which is at 369 The Embarcadero and looks out on The Bay Lights.
The new creation will have double the current number of lights, or 50,000 LEDs. Gifts to the new installation can be made at http://www.thebaylights360.org/. More than $5,200 had been raised as of Friday afternoon.
“The Bay Lights have become one of the icons of San Francisco, and we hope the fundraising campaign to save this important light art installation is successful, so they can come back even bigger and better than before,” said Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, the official destination marketing organization for the city.
“We encourage San Francisco businesses and residents to support the efforts to keep The Bay Lights illuminating our beautiful city for years to come,” D’Alessandro said.
How un-green. 50 KW- that’s a lot of power (assuming the LEDs draw 1 watt each-could be higher than that).
The rumor is they will be installing colored lights for a rainbow effect.
Stars are already faded out from light pollution. Yes, it looks nice when it can be seen but the only time I get to see them is the evening news happens to have a camera pointed that way during a story line.
In 2015, Philips Lighting North America Corp. was approved a ten-year contract to maintain the lights starting in 2016. They have three years left on the contract, so why are they shutting the lights off now?
Are they solar panel supported? If not who pays the pge bill. How many feet will the bay rise because of all the tons of carbon that are released? if not enough money is raised, what happens to the money that has been donated? Other than all of this, they look pretty cool.
Whatever the new creation is you can bet money on it it’s going to be WOKE and LBGTQ?!* related.
We don’t need those lights. Too much of a driving distraction. Save the energy .
For the cost of a new system maybe they should just hang a few christmas lights on the bridge. 12 million dollars.
Lets see. They don’t want to distract the drivers but they want the drivers to see the lights. Only in Frisco!!!
And yes it’s not green.
@BOB….The only “Frisco” I know of is a city in Texas….where did you live before moving to CA, Bob?
Funny but Frisco will always get a remark out of me. If you can’t say the whole name call it The City
.
Why do so many people get so butt hurt about calling it “Frisco”? I get that it may not be your preferred name for San Francisco but to actually care is ridiculous to me. Btw, I don’t call it Frisco but I might now just to get a rise out of people lol!
Maybe before throwing a boatload of money at this “portal of public art at night”, there should be a razor focus on the fact that people are not only living in the streets of S.F., but they’re also urinating, defecating, vomiting, overdosing, and inevitably dying there as well. Is the aim to present incoming people with a “glorious manifestation” of beauty before they’re slapped with overwhelming stench and decay? Tragically, San Francisco is no longer a vacation destination. It’s a really creepy place to be.
Thats so “bay area” that even the lights on one of the more iconic images of our region is getting priced out