Veterans Memorial lighting schedule confirmed for new fiscal year
The city council approved the Veterans Memorial Building's lighting schedule for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, at last week's council meeting.
Culver City plans to light up the Veterans Memorial Building at 4117 Overland Avenue year-round. The schedule approved at last Tuesday's regularly scheduled City Council meeting, which runs through the fiscal year from July 2026 to June 2027, includes projections that will light the building to celebrate holidays and special acknowledgments.
Some of these holidays include lights resembling an American flag for Independence Day in July, a week of purple lights in recognition of Purple Heart Day in August, pink lights for Breast Cancer Awareness month in October, and the last week displaying orange in celebration of Halloween.
The Veterans Memorial Building, originally built in 1951 as a “tourist tower” to view the backlot movie sets at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, stands 122 feet tall. While the observation tower is now closed, the building’s long facade is adorned with lights each year — an especially popular view during the holiday season.
Prior to 2019, the city draped the building in strings of green lights to resemble a Christmas tree. However, after a structural safety review found the installation of lights unsafe for workers, the city switched to projection lights.
Gobo projection lights, which used stenciled templates in front of a light to project patterns and textures onto the building, were initially tested as a temporary solution. In 2023, the city installed double-sided RGBW pixel string lights to introduce an image that more closely resembles the Christmas tree many Culver City residents remember fondly.
The upcoming 2026 holiday season promises to deliver lights celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas in December.
To view the 2026-27 Veterans Memorial Building light schedule, click here.
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