American light artist Leo Villareal and British architects and urban planners Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands have won the Illuminated River International Design Competition.
The Illuminated River is a design commission for a unified scheme to light central London’s bridges along the River Thames in a free, permanent light installation. The work will take place in 2017.
The seven-month competition saw submissions from 105 teams in 20 countries. The six shortlisted concepts went on show to the public at the Royal Festival Hall in November and was seen by more than 10,000 people.
The internationally acclaimed American artist, Leo Villareal came to prominence through his celebrated project, The Bay Lights, which lit San Francisco Bay Bridge for two years.
The Illuminated River Foundation will raise the funds for the project from private and philanthropic sources rather than the public sector. The Foundation has already announced the first pledges totalling £10 million in November. This includes £5 million from the Arcadia Fund (Peter Baldwin and Lisbet Rausing) and £5 million from the Rothschild Foundation.
Seed funding of £100,000 was granted for The Illuminated River from the Greater London Authority, to support the process for the design competition, alongside funding of £250,000 from the Rothschild Foundation, and a contribution of £500,000 from the City of London Corporation (via the Bridge House Estates) towards the delivery of the first phase.
