LAX GATEWAY PYLONS AND CENTRAL TERMINAL AREA LIGHTBAND PROGRAMMED RED, WHITE, BLUE THIS WEEKEND TO COMMEMORATE NATIONAL PATRIOT DAY AND NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE AND REMEMBRANCE

The LAX Gateway pylons along Century Boulevard and the recently installed color lightband running throughout the Central Terminal Area at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) will be lit red, white and blue this weekend, beginning at dusk tonight to dawn on Saturday, then on Saturday night to Sunday morning, and again on Sunday night to Monday morning.  The special color light program is to commemorate National Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance in honor of the individuals who died during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. 

Other 9-11 commemorative activities today included a moment of silence in the airline terminals at 5:46 a.m. and flying the U.S. flag at half-staff. 

The 36 translucent, tempered-glass LAX Gateway light columns have become a symbolic gateway to Los Angeles since they were first lit in August 2000.  The 1.5-mile lineup of 11 columns of increasing height from 25-feet to 60-feet tall run along Century Boulevard from Aviation Boulevard, and culminate with a ring of 15 100-foot-tall columns at the intersection of Century and Sepulveda boulevards.  Together with 32-foot-high “L-A-X” letters facing eastward to welcome incoming motorists, the pylons create what is considered the world’s largest permanent public-art light installation.  The pylons, oriented skyward and designed to mimic an aircraft takeoff pattern, are visible to airline passengers from 3,000 feet. 

The programmable, polychromatic LED (light-emitting diode) lightband runs more than one mile along the edge of the Upper/Departures Level roadway in the LAX Central Terminal Area.  The lightband is made up of 690 eight-foot-long individual light boxes interconnected and controlled by a single theater control system.  The system includes an optical fiber network that handles over 17,000 individual digital multiplex (DMX) addresses and over 5,500 linear feet (or more than 43,000 individual) color-changing LED lights with color control for each, allowing limitless capabilities to program light shows.  The lightband was unveiled in late July with a specially programmed light show to welcome the Special Olympics World Games to Los Angeles.