As evening fell on San Francisco’s waterfront, artist Leo Villareal watched the 50,000 LED lights come to life on the western span of the Bay Bridge as if he was witnessing an old friend come back from the dead. It’s been three years since Villareal’s last iteration of the Bay Lights ended its run on the bridge and went dark. Now, as darkness swallowed the bridge, Villareal hunched over a laptop on Pier 14 near the Ferry Building, tweaking his latest version, watching his creation reignite. This Friday, Villareal and the San Francisco arts group Illuminate will officially flip the switch marking the return of the Bay Lights, which is expected to remain up for at least a decade. “I’m trying to really keep it true to the original Bay Lights everyone knows and loves,” Villareal said, glancing between the laptop and the bridge. “So a lot of the original sequences, I’ve had to kind of adapt to the new technology. But they’re very much those original sequences.” Artist Leo Villareal uses a laptop and special software to tweak the sequences of the Bay Lights, which will officially relight on Friday on the western span of the Bay Bridge and remain for at least a decade. Villareal first created the Bay Lights in 2013 in conjunction with Illuminate and its founder Ben Davis. Previous versions of the lights were battered by the bay’s harsh conditions of salt, water and vibration which gave them a shelf life. They were installed and reinstalled several times before finally switching off in 2023. Illuminate raised $11 million in private funds to pay for the new installation. For Villareal — who since the initial project has gone on to create celebrated light projects around the world — it was a chance to visit his earliest major work. “It’s really interesting to revisit an artwork that has existed for 13 years or even longer,” Villareal said. “It’s the first time I connected software and light and space and it was very profound the result.” The technology Villareal employs to create the sequences has advanced by leaps and bounds since the first Bay Lights. The coding has gotten more sophisticated, allowing him more ability to intricately tweak the detailed layers of light sequences. Artist Leo Villareal uses a laptop and special software to tweak the sequences of the Bay Lights, which will officially relight on Friday on the western span of the Bay Bridge and remain for at least a decade. Villareal said the new version of the LED lights themselves is heartier with more range of depth. As he watched the sequences, he noted the subtle improvements over previous versions. “Certainly feels more majestic to me,” he said. “There’s more depth to it and I think all my experience is feeding into it.” Through his software, Villareal is able to combine layers in different ways — adding and subtracting light, adjusting the trails, the brightness, and experimenting with negative space. He likened the experience to improvising with a musical instrument. At the same time, as the lights flickered and morphed — amoebas of shape flowing across the bridge cables — Villareal himself was also in another sense just an appreciative observer. Though he oversees the artistry, his software creates the sequences leaving him as surprised as any other viewer with its results. A woman walks down the Embarcadero past the Bay Lights, which are in a testing phase until their official relighting Friday on the western span of the Bay Bridge. “I don’t know in advance what the sequences will be,” Villareal said. “And I really like that part of the process of not knowing and making discoveries.” The emotional sparkle of the twinkling lights comes as San Francisco embraces a rebound from the dark times of the recent post-pandemic era. For many, the return of the Bay Lights seems to symbolize the hope of a city-wide revival — with Villareal happy to add the bling. “It’s been super exciting to come back and kind of rekindle the energy,” Villareal said. “I think San Francisco needs it, and I’m thrilled to be part of it.” Bay Bridge Feb 20 Bay Bridge artistic light installation coming back in March discover black heritage Feb 12 The Bay Area woman bringing light back to stained glass ...read more read less