The Philadelphia Portal is moving to new location today. Here's where it's headed.
Nearly six months after it first arrived in Philadelphia, the city's viral Portal art installation is on the move.
On Monday morning, the Portal will be relocated to its new home in the City Hall Courtyard, a location selected after a public voting period.
The Portal was first installed in LOVE Park back in October and connected the City of Brotherly Love to live webcams in Ireland, Lithuania and Poland.
At 9 a.m., a police escort and parade will transport the Portal along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The procession will stop in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum before continuing on to the City Hall Courtyard, where owners say it should be reinstalled and up and running by lunchtime.
But anyone walking or working along the parade route is encouraged to give the Portal a wave as it passes by – the company behind the Portal says it'll be online while it moves to its new location.
The Portal will remain in the City Hall Courtyard for about a year before being moved to another location closer to Independence Hall for the country's 250th anniversary celebrations in 2026.
Since landing in Center City, the global webcam – which first launched in New York City back in May 2024 – has been fraught with a few setbacks.
Days after being put up in LOVE Park, the screen on the front of the eye-shaped sculpture cracked due to some too-tightly installed screws.
And for the last several weeks, the Portal was disconnected after repeated incidents of vandalism and damage. In one case, police said someone stole copper wire from the structure; in another, the screen was smashed. Portal Director Joseph Callahan previously said vandalism wasn't a factor in the decision to move the Portal and that Philadelphia has been the "best place" for the project, despite the fact that similar installations in other cities have not experienced damage.