By admin 
At night, the 1600 block of Columbia’s Main Street is bathed in a warm LED glow, thanks to 28,000 lights strung overhead: a “ceiling of lights” that transforms the block after dark.
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Since it went up in late 2022, the canopy has become a go-to photo op, and city leaders say it has helped make Main Street feel safer and more inviting at night.
Now plans are in motion to illuminate even more of Main Street, but not in the way leaders initially envisioned. And it hasn’t yet been decided if the existing ceiling of lights will stay.
“While it has been very popular with the public … it is a real challenge to maintain in its current form,” said Main Street District CEO Matt Kennell of the light canopy in a presentation to members of Columbia City Council Tuesday.
For over two years, Kennell and his colleagues have looked for creative ways to extend those lights down more of Main Street, but the project is more complicated, and expensive, than one may think.
The lights are hung one string at a time, and have to be entirely replaced twice a year. That’s an effort that costs about $20,000 each time the lights are changed out, Kennell said.
To string those lights across the rest of Main Street would also require new infrastructure like light poles.
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So instead, the Main Street District and the Boyd Foundation have partnered to install large sphere lights at every Main Street intersection between Laurel and Gervais streets (that’s from City Hall all the way to the SC Statehouse) and are also looking at placing bistro lights along the sidewalks. The project is being entirely funded by the Boyd Foundation, Kennell said.
The lights will be placed 5-at-a-time in the trees that anchor Main Street’s intersections. They are the first phase of an ongoing project. The Boyd Foundation has also asked for a quote to determine the cost of installing bistro lights, which are also string lights, along Main Street’s sidewalks. The next phase of work would be to identify more ways to light up the street blocks, not just the intersections.
The sphere lights are expected to be installed within a couple of months. Kennell Tuesday could not say what the final cost is for the project, nor the total number of lights that will be installed.
The fate of the light canopy on the 1600 block still hasn’t been decided, but the lights will remain at least through the winter holidays, Kennell said. Though they will likely need to be replaced once more before the holiday season, he added.
Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said lighting that block at night has made a noticeable difference on Main Street.
“I’m glad we’re finally here,” Rickenmann said of the expansion plans. “At the end of the day, I think this is really going to add a whole lot of character to Main Street.”
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