City Hall Lighting

This Month's Lighting Events

12/1               Red/green - Civic Center Holiday Tree Lighting
12/3               Purple - International Day of People with Disabilities
12/4 - 12/5     Blue - Shop and Dine in the 49
12/10             Orange - International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women
12/11             Blue - Shop and Dine in the 49
12/12             Blue/White - SFCM Performance by Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra
12/13             Red/green - Happy Holidays
12/14             Green/blue/white - Congratulations to Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep Football Champions
12/15             Orange/blue - Congratulations to Balboa High School Football Champions        
12/16              Teal/Gold - National Day of Kazakhstan
12/18              Green - Premiere of Matrix 4 movie
12/19 - 12/25  Red/green - Happy Holidays
12/26              Red/green/black - 1st night of Kwanza
12/27 - 12/30  Red/green - Happy Holidays
12/31              Gold/white - Happy New Year!

Lighting Event History

About City Hall's Exterior Lighting

Every evening at sunset, over 220 state-of-the-art LED lighting fixtures illuminate City Hall's exterior. Normally, a soft white glow shows off the play of light and shadow on the full façade and dome. Frequently, special plaza façade lighting schemes honor or celebrate events, seasons, and holidays.
 
Until 2016, the lights were standard incandescent bulbs. Changing their colors was expensive and time-consuming; two to three building staff members, plus a crew of four staff from a lighting contractor, spent hours crawling in and out of office windows and onto the rooftop to install colored theatrical gels on each of the 220 fixtures, even in bad weather. For removal of the gels, the whole process happened in reverse.
 
Power use is now much lower, and with just an occasional cleaning, maintaining the fixtures is much easier: LED bulbs last as long as 20 years.

View City Hall Live via CastroCam.net (Leaving sfgov.org)

News About City Hall Lighting

Please note, the CIty Hall lighting schedule is subject to change.