SF City Hall Lights Up in Honor of City Lights Founder Lawrence Ferlingetti

Submitted by the Event Organizer

San Francisco’s City Hall and its 220+ state-of-the-art LED lighting fixtures will illuminate Green/white/Red on March 26, 2021 the colors of the Flag of Italy in honor of Lawrence Ferlingetti, founder of City Lights and SF Poet Laureate who died at age 101 in February.

San Francisco City Hall Lighting Schedule

The schedule is always tentative for the holiday lighting and subject to change when there are special events and the building is lit in honor of those.

This Month’s Lighting Events

3/1 – 3/4        Special – “We the People” projection on Goodlett facade.
3/5                Special – “We the People” projection on Goodlett facade and Green/Orange/White for Irish Flag Raising
3/6 – 3/7        Special – “We the People” projection on Goodlett facade.
3/8                Purple – International Women’s Day
3/9                Gold – Honoring Frontline workers
3/10              Blue – Colon Cancer Awareness Month
3/11              Red/white/blue – Honoring 1st Responders
3/15              Purple – Honoring our Hospitality industry
3/16              Gold – Honoring Frontline workers
3/17              Green – St. Patrick’s Day
3/18              Red/white/blue – Honoring 1st Responders
3/22              Purple – Honoring our Hospitality industry
3/23              Gold – Honoring Frontline workers
3/24              Red – World TB Day
3/25              Blue/White – 200th Anniversary of Greek Independence
3/26              Green/white/Red – Flag of Italy in Honor of Lawrence Ferlingetti
3/29              Purple – Honoring our Hospitality industry
3/30              Gold – Honoring Frontline workers
3/31              Blue – Honoring Healthcare workers

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

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.