Window lights

AES Indiana's iconic LED window light display on its 10-story headquarters in downtown Indianapolis shines brightly each night to promote meaningful events and organizations impacting lives in Central Indiana. The light display is controlled via a computer and uses energy-efficient, long-lasting bulbs to create a myriad of colors and movement. Our current calendar is below; please note that this calendar is subject to change without notification.

Shining a Light on unity

Taking advantage of Monument Circle's unique space, AES Indiana collaborates with Downtown Indy, Inc. and the Indiana War Memorials Commission to present the Signature Salute, which plays nightly, 365 days a year. It starts with a 10-minute countdown and concludes with the five-minute presentation. Coordinated audio, video and light projections featuring the sounds and images of historic significance unfold across the surrounding building facades and statues on the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Four beams of light soar skyward from each quadrant lighting Victory (atop the Monument), signaling Indianapolis as the Crossroads of America. Each of the three songs played show a unique look on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

• Armed Services Medley: Red look on Monument
• American the Beautiful: Amber look on the Monument
• USA National Anthem: American flag wrap on the Monument

Mask wearing is encouraged, especially when social distancing outdoors is difficult. Please plan accordingly.

History

The AES Indiana window lights began in 1954 with red and green stripes for Christmas. Back then, maintenance crews had to change each bulb by hand. Even though technology improved, it still took two workers eight hours each to place individual glass color filters on each light fixture to create the images before we installed LED fixtures in 2008.

Today, we use computer software to control the lights. It’s just a click of a button to change images and colors. AES Indiana’s 10-story building has 267 individually controlled windows, each equipped with 36 high-efficiency bulbs that can generate 16 million different color combinations. 

Window light requests

If your organization or event would like to request a display on a specific date, please send an email to AES Indiana Community Relations at aesindianapublicaffairs@aes.com. Please include the following information:

• Date(s) requested
• Name of associated event or organization
• Display request – for example: all red, rainbow, specific color ribbon, specific words or hashtag, etc.
• Please note: All scrolling messages should be kept to a maximum of 15 characters, including spaces.

Please submit requests at least four weeks before your requested date. AES Indiana makes every effort to honor window lights requests; we run the lights from sundown to the following morning. Please note that the Shining a Light presentation calendar takes precedence and AES Indiana building lights will not be visible while the Shining a Light presentation is running. You should always check the Shining a Light nightly schedule for presentation times on any given night.

Note that we reserve the right to make changes to the building light schedule due to unforeseen circumstances (local or national news, changes to community event schedules, etc.) Also, due to the volume of requests, AES Indiana cannot honor personalized requests for engagements, baby announcements or similar.