Illuminating a Landmark: Philadelphia City Hall Gets A Lighting Upgrade

Sep 3, 2024

Illuminating a Landmark: Philadelphia City Hall Gets A Lighting Upgrade

When the opportunity arose to collaborate on a Philadelphia lighting upgrade for the iconic City Hall, we eagerly accepted the challenge. Known for our expertise in integrating and programming exterior lighting systems, we were excited to bring a fresh, modern perspective to one of the most recognizable landmarks in the region.

City Hall Project Background

Philadelphia City Hall is more than just the largest municipal building in the United States; it’s a living testament to the city’s rich history and architectural prowess. Constructed in 1894, this Second Empire-style building is adorned with intricate sculptures and crowned by a 27-ton statue of William Penn. The building was illuminated for decades by conventional floodlights, which, while functional, did little to highlight its ornate details and grandeur.

With the advent of color-changing LED technology and a growing interest in enhancing the city’s nightscape, it was time to upgrade. The goal was to replace the outdated floodlights with a cutting-edge lighting system that could dynamically change the building’s appearance for holidays and events while being remotely controlled and easy to maintain.

Project Challenges

This Philadelphia lighting project presented several unique challenges. The lighting fixtures needed to be installed on ten separate buildings surrounding City Hall, each with its own access protocols and logistical hurdles. Additionally, the dense urban environment of Center City Philadelphia, with its high levels of RF spectrum usage and powerful cellular arrays, posed significant risks to the reliability of the wireless DMX transmission.

Because the lighting fixtures were installed on ten separate buildings surrounding City Hall, some privately held, the project timeline required detailed coordination among multiple parties. Our project partners did an exceptional job of arranging access protocols to allow our technicians to get up to the various rooftops as needed, but using the wireless and remote capabilities of the system was vital to the project’s success. To avoid spoiling the surprise of the new lighting for most residents, the programming sessions were scheduled to start late at night and go until early in the morning.

Starlite Philadelphia Lighting Solutions

Starlite’s solution for the Philadelphia lighting upgrade centered around the City Theatrical Multiverse® Wireless DMX. This was chosen for its exceptional interference rejection and reliability in crowded RF environments. We began by establishing a network of transmitters on the roof of City Hall, carefully aligning antennas to ensure a robust connection to the receiving units on the surrounding buildings.

Throughout the installation, our team used advanced tools like the RadioScan Spectrum Analyzer to select the optimal frequency ranges and troubleshoot any issues with signal transmission. Thanks to the remote capabilities of the Multiverse system, we were able to minimize the need for physical access to the equipment. This kept the project on schedule and within budget.

Our integration process also included innovative problem-solving when unexpected challenges arose. For example, when cellular arrays interfered with signal transmission, we adapted by relocating transmitters and daisy-chaining signals across remote buildings. This flexibility allowed us to maintain a strong and uninterrupted connection, ensuring the system’s reliability.

The Results

The newly illuminated Philadelphia City Hall shows off its innovation and artistry in the heart of the city. Thousands of residents and visitors pass by this landmark daily. The dynamic lighting not only enhances its architectural beauty but also serves as a wayfinding tool.

Starlite is proud to have played a role in bringing this historic building into the modern age while preserving its legacy. Our collaboration with The Lighting Practice and other project partners has resulted in a truly transformative experience, showcasing the power of technology to elevate art and architecture to new heights.

Our team of creative, detail-oriented professionals has the technical artistry, credentials, and work ethic needed to transform your current audio, visual, and/or lighting needs—and to treat you more like a person than a project.

Check out Live Design’s Q&A with Sr. Project Manager Andrew Thompson

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Veterans Stadium Liberty Bell

Apr 17, 2019

Veterans Stadium Liberty Bell

To welcome visitors to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Major League Baseball Philadelphia Phillies commissioned a special lighting project to vividly illuminate Philly’s historic and iconic Veterans Stadium Liberty Bell.

This Liberty Bell feature was originally located on the facade of the 400 level of Veterans Stadium until 1983 when it was moved to its permanent position in center field of the catwalk above the 700 level. Weighing more than 5,000 pounds and measuring 19 feet tall with over (300) light bulbs, the Veterans Stadium Liberty Bell inspired the larger 52-foot Liberty Bell that now sits in right-center field of Citizens Bank Park where it lights up and swings after Philadelphia Phillies home runs and wins.

Veterans Stadium, home to both the , Major League Baseball (MLB) Philadelphia Phillies and National Football League (NFL) Philadelphia Eagles from 1971-2003, was imploded in March 2004 and the steel and aluminum bell was almost forgotten about. It returned to the ballpark after being lovingly reworked by CIMA Network, and the Phillies organization sought to integrate control of the feature into their ballpark-wide lighting control system. The newly refurbished Veterans Stadium Liberty Bell now features (321) new color-changing LED light bulbs and outlined with a new color-changing neon stripe controlled in (290) 5” long segments. A great photo opportunity, the Bell can now be found outside the 3rd base entrance of Citizens Bank Park at Pattison Avenue and 11th Street, next to Mike Schmidt’s statue and the new Pass and Stow area.

Installation

ETC Mosaic MSC4 Show Controller
Networked DMX Gateway

Artistic Programming

(321) Color Kinetics iColor Flex LMX gen2 RGB Bulbs (Provided by CIMA)
1,450 linear feet of GLLS Vivid Pixel RGB Neon (Provided by CIMA)

Democratic National Convention

Jul 30, 2016

Democratic National Convention

To welcome the Democratic National Convention hosted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 25th to 28th, 2016, the city commissioned a special lighting project to vividly illuminate Philly’s two historic landmarks: 30th Street Station and City Hall.

To welcome the Democratic National Convention hosted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 25th to 28th, 2016, the city commissioned a special lighting project to vividly illuminate Philly’s two historic landmarks: 30th Street Station and City Hall.

Starlite and The Lighting Practice of Philadelphia had the honor of collaborating on this fun project. The lighting design for each landmark dictated a combination of powerful LED wash lights and long-throw profile units to project of various patriotic patterns and elements. Being both impactful and weatherproof were critical when specifying the equipment for the month-long project. After careful consideration, Starlite’s VP of Event Technology: Jason Danowitz, chose SGM‘s P5 high-performance outdoor LED wash units, and Clay Paky’s Mythos fixtures housed in Igloo enclosures as the real workhorses of the design.

Supplying power to 30th Street Station’s glowing display was no easy feat. It required boring multiple 48″ deep holes into the roadway to reach the power source. The 30th Street Station design also featured an interior lighting package to illuminate the east and west windows using dozens of Elation‘s Color Chorus linear RGBA fixtures and an ETC Ion console.

For City Hall and the Avenue of the Arts’ architectural system, MA Lighting International GmbH’s full-size grandMA2 with an NPU processor was the console of choice. City Hall had its own challenges — the wireless DMX transceivers were almost a half-mile from the control room to the receiving point at City Hall. Starlite was able to take control of the existing architectural LED lighting system which runs along the Avenue of the Arts to coordinate the lighting looks and sequences with City Hall. The interconnected lighting systems created a beautiful radiant sight of red, white and blue down South Broad Street.

The lighting displays were widely praised by the media and captivated DNC attendees, visitors, and natives alike.

Hillary Clinton Political Rally

Apr 7, 2016

Hillary Clinton Political Rally

When PRG Chicago needed a local partner to pull off a pop-up political event in Philadelphia, they relied on Starlite to deliver. Former President Bill Clinton addressed a crowd of supporters for the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign. With notice only hours prior to load-in, Starlite was able to organize all of the critical production elements including power generation, lighting for press, staging with scenic elements, PA with distribution for press, and barricade.

Lankenau Hospital’s 150th Anniversary

Oct 23, 2010

Lankenau Hospital’s 150th Anniversary

Lankenau Hospital has been defining medicine for 150 years. This black-tie gala was a celebration of the extraordinary milestone of its 150th Anniversary as well as the kickoff of a $500 million transformation already underway and the rebranding of their name to the more apt Lankenau Medical Center.

The event was held at the historic Philadelphia Museum of Art, which dates to 1877, and houses over 225,000 works of art and is one of the largest museums in the United States. Staging an event of this size while the museum remained opened to the public created its own set of challenges which our team readily handled.