The Bay Lights

The Bay Lights consists of twenty-five thousand white light-emitting diodes mounted on the vertical suspension cables of the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Leo Villareal designed the installation to run custom algorithms that create shifting, non-repeating patterns across the bridge structure. When it first lit up in twenty thirteen, the project functioned as a temporary public art display. After its initial run, private donors raised millions of dollars to reinstall the lights as a permanent fixture of the night skyline.