The Lanterns: PDX Winter Light Festival 2025

Every year in mid February, Portland glows from within for the Winter Light Festival. To celebrate the festival’s 10th year we designed and built a 16’ tall cluster of wooden lanterns along our city’s waterfront for the public to enjoy. Over 700’ of programmable lighting was used to illuminate the inner structure, creating a radiant corridor in the main hub as well as a dedicated “Kid Zone” for this family-friendly celebration. Blackbird volunteers were onsite through the festival to offer the public a chance to customize the light displays.

Build

In preparation for the festival, we worked alongside the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers to prefabricate much of The Lanterns’ components ahead of time. For the build day onsite in downtown Portland, the structure went up in just under 6 hours with the help of our incredible volunteers.

Design

The Lanterns began as a collaborative napkin sketch before a finalized design emerged and renderings were made to help imagine the effect of the finished product. The architectural drawings become the backbone of the Build Manual that guides our volunteers through the step-by-step process to bring the installation to life.

Design: Christopher Cardoza