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Philadelphia’s Boathouse Row will remain dark until 2024

Continued renovations to the site’s LED system leaves the area dark through the holiday season.

Boathouse Row is lighted in blue and gold during the pandemic in 2020 in support of essential workers. Continued renovations to the site’s LED system will leave the area dark through the holiday season.
Boathouse Row is lighted in blue and gold during the pandemic in 2020 in support of essential workers. Continued renovations to the site’s LED system will leave the area dark through the holiday season.Read moreTOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer

The lights illuminating Philadelphia’s Boathouse Row will remain dark until 2024.

As reported by 6abc, the historic stretch of social and rowing clubs will be blacked out due to continued renovations to the area’s LED system. The lights, which were installed in 2005, were turned off in March to replace 6,400 LED bulbs.

The new lights will be programmed to change colors in 16 million possible combinations with the capability to “dance,” said the Fairmount Park Conservancy, the project lead, and the city Parks & Recreation Department.

The $2.1 million project was expected to take eight months to complete, but according to city officials, the east bank of the Schuylkill will remain dim until the first quarter of the new year due to supply chain issues. The project designer is the Lighting Practice, which has offices in Philadelphia, Dallas, and New York City.

The lighting of the rowing club houses began in October 1979, with the visit of Pope John Paul II. The designer was Ray Grenald, who founded Grenald Waldron Associates in Philadelphia in 1968.