Shining new light on a historic landmark

Since its completion in 1901, Philadelphia City Hall has stood tall and mighty as the largest city hall in the United States of America. It is home to 88 million bricks, 250 sculptures and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, all occupying nearly fifteen acres. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, this building certainly garners proper attention as a major attraction in this historic city.

To further enhance this intricate architectural masterpiece for the 1.5 million people who call this city home and the 25.8 million yearly tourists, the city opted for a renovation of its façade. Over recent years, a growing sentiment for this monument to be included in celebratory moments within the community has been seen. However, the previous lighting system was nearly 20 years old, making it difficult to source replacement parts, challenging to maintain and expensive to run. To fulfill the wishes of this community-oriented city, and secure this remarkable building as an impressive landmark, the City of Philadelphia aimed to transform the old lighting designs and systems.

The installation had ambitions of replacing the architectural, HID, white lighting of key elements of City Hall with a color-programmable, LED lighting system that is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. The design also hoped to enhance lighting for visibility of other portions of the building and for pedestrian safety. The focus on this goal included bringing the illumination of the façade down to the lowest levels of the City Hall, which the previous lighting system did not do. 

Designers swapped out the old, costly HID sources for much more sustainable LED lighting by Color Kinetics. As this structure stands tall against the Philadelphia skyline at an impressive 548 feet, it’s no wonder Color Kinetics ReachElite Series were the perfect product for this installation. The design incorporates 190 ReachElite 200s and 32 ReachElite 300s illuminating the building façade. The luminaires are mounted on a total of 11 buildings as close as 100 feet and as far as 450 feet from the illuminated surface.

The project specification was originally developed as a competitive bid. Color Kinetics products were ultimately selected to carry out this stunning project for their unparalleled performance, low maintenance cost, lead-time, and product support. The narrow beam optics allowed for a punch of light to meet or exceed illumination levels the HID could provide. Color Kinetics ReachElite High Punch has a native beam angle of an extremely narrow 3°, allowing it to deliver light to an extremely precise target area with a very high punch rate. In addition, these optics allow for vibrant colored light, which fulfilled one of the design’s objectives. 

One lighting designer said, “During our late nights of aiming and programming, the punch and the discernability of each colored light beam was better than expected.  These factors opened up greater possibilities for what we can achieve through accent and color use, than we had thought.” 

This design, complete with Color Kinetics ReachElite luminaires, ensures a bright future for this Philadelphia beacon as it stands for many years to come.