Rebecca Maloney
Americas Press Office ,Boston
Arup, in collaboration with Obscura Digital, helped bring San Francisco City Hall to life with LEDs for its 100-year celebration.
On 19 June, San Francisco City Hall was fêted with a visual display using LEDs and architectural projections, transforming the façade of the 100-year-old building. Arup, working with Obscura Digital and the Centennial Planning Committee, helped project striking lighting designs depicting the history of City Hall onto the building, illuminating this National Historic Landmark.
Both a centennial celebration and a kick-off for the Conference of the Mayors, the event also inaugurated the new LED lighting system on the building façade, designed by Arup’s lighting and electrical teams. A brief scene showcasing the new system’s capabilities was integrated into Mayor Lee’s speech, followed by an Obscura Digital show and a dance performance by Project Bandaloup.
As City Hall was moving into its second century, it was time to rethink the popular but expensive lighting system. For past lighting displays, the fixtures used over 31,600 watts and changing the colours required manually installing gels to 220 light fixtures.
The new LED lighting system will reduce the wattage used daily by almost half and extend the hours of life for each fixture. Further, the colours can now be changed via control panel. Each of these factors will yield a significant reduction to the total exterior lighting cost, provide ease and simplicity for future San Francisco events, and illuminate City Hall more brightly than ever before.
Click here to view a video detailing the new, intelligent LED lighting system.