Harvey Milk Plaza to get rainbow light installation

A rendering of "Harvey's Halo" to be introduced Nov. 8 at Harvey Milk Plaza. A rendering of "Harvey's Halo" to be introduced Nov. 8 at Harvey Milk Plaza. Photo: Courtesy Illuminate Photo: Courtesy Illuminate Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Harvey Milk Plaza to get rainbow light installation 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

Harvey Milk Plaza, a dated transit hub and gathering place at the intersection of Market and Castro streets, will soon be lit in white neon and an array of rainbow colors shooting into the sky to honor the slain San Francisco supervisor.

The two light sculptures by the nonprofit Illuminate will be unveiled Nov. 8 at a free public ceremony to honor the 40th anniversary of Milk’s election to the Board of Supervisors, which made him the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California.

The artwork and dedication were initiated by the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza as the beacon for a planned multimillion-dollar remake of the public space outside the Castro Muni Metro Station. The lights will be attached the curving crown and roof of the old Bank of America at the top of the escalator.

The neon sign will be permanent and read “Hope Will Never Be Silent,” a phrase attributed to Milk. The shafts of light rising from the top of the building will be temporary and known as “Harvey’s Halo.” The colors will match the Castro’s huge rainbow flag that waves high above Market at the entrance to the plaza.

“The art is designed to honor the life and legacy of Harvey Milk through light’s power of attraction,” said Ben Davis, founder and CEO of Illuminate, the arts group that draped the suspension cables of the Bay Bridge in a twinkling LED pattern and more recently lit the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love.

The Milk Plaza installation was announced last week with a crowdfunding drive at Illuminate.org. The budget is $60,000.

“Hope Will Never Be Silent” is 10 feet long and fits perfectly into the space that used to hold the Bank of America sign. It will offer added inspiration for customers of the SoulCycle fitness center that now occupies the building. The neon will glow from dark to dawn, “as a permanent greeting,” Davis said.

“Harvey’s Halo” will consist of 15 colored beams, each powered by 350 watts. Davis estimates it will be visible all the way down Market Street to the Ferry Building. It will shine for seven nights, spread across two weekends.

The public opening, titled “Honoring Harvey Milk,” will start at 6 p.m. Nov. 8. By then, the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza expect to announce the winner of an international design competition to completely reimagine the plaza, which Davis said is currently an “underwhelming experience.”

The sunken brick plaza, now marked only by a series of enlarged photographs of Milk, will be replaced.

The project is budgeted at $10 million to $15 million, to be privately funded in collaboration with improvements to the station by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Construction is expected to start in 2020.

“Harvey Milk Plaza is sacred ground for the LGBT civil rights movement, and people come from all over the world to make a pilgrimage,” said Andrea Aiello, president of the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza. “The public art that Ben has created will show to the city what is possible for this sacred space.”

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SamWhitingSF Instagram: @sfchronicle_art