April 14, 2025
Michael Tanenbaum/PhillyVoice
The Portal is moving from LOVE Park to the City Hall Courtyard on Monday following a procession along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
The Portal sculpture is moving to the City Hall courtyard Monday morning after spending six months at LOVE Park.
Beginning at 9 a.m., a police escort began a procession along the sculpture along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the sculpture will make a 15-minute stop before heading to its new location. The Portal, which connects pedestrians to people in Dublin; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Lublin, Poland, will remain live during the journey. Officials expect it to be in place in the City Hall courtyard by lunchtime.
The new location is the result of an online poll that asked whether the Portal should remain in LOVE Park, where it has been since October, or move to City Hall. Before coming to Philly last fall, the Portal had been installed in New York City.
The sculpture will remain in Philadelphia for at least two years, and will be present for the semiquincentennial celebration honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. At that time, it may move closer to Independence Hall.
The Portal had been closed for two months due to vandalism, but came back online on March 27. Surveillance footage shows a suspect removing copper wire from the Portal on the morning of Feb. 1 and then transporting it in a trash can with the help of three other people.
Watch a livestream of the moving from LOVE Park to City Hall below:
