Permanent Roofline & Christmas Lights in the Gold Coast, Chicago
Custom Christmas lighting and permanent roofline lighting for the Gold Coast, designed for Astor Street limestone, brownstone fronts and buildings where the board approves the plan before we hang a clip.
Christmas lights from $799 · Permanent roofline from about $3,000
The Unique Charm of Gold Coast
The Gold Coast Historic District runs roughly from North Avenue to Oak Street between Lake Shore Drive and Clark, and it entered the National Register on 30 January 1978. Potter Palmer started it: he moved here in 1882 and built a forty two room castle designed by Henry Ives Cobb and Charles Sumner Frost, demolished in 1951. Adler and Sullivan built the district's first apartment building on the 1200 block of Astor Street in 1886, gone by 1913. What remains is dense and serious: the James Charnley House, the Astor Street blocks, the Newberry Library, the International Museum of Surgical Science, and Oak Street Beach at the lake end. In 2011 it ranked as the seventh richest urban neighborhood in the United States.
Our Services in Gold Coast
From magical Christmas displays to permanent architectural lighting, we have professional solutions for every property and every season.
Residential Holiday Lighting
Almost nothing here is a detached house with a gutter you can clip to. It is limestone and brownstone fronts, party walls, and buildings tall enough that the top edge is past ladder reach. We work the cornice line, the bay projections and the entry, we fasten nothing to cut stone, and we plan the equipment before the design. Every residential package is all inclusive: custom design, install, mid season maintenance, takedown and storage.
Commercial Holiday Lighting
Oak Street and the blocks off Michigan Avenue carry retail that is walked past at close range in December. Precision matters more than volume: a straight cornice line and a well lit entry read as expensive, and a sagging run reads as the opposite from three feet away.
Permanent roofline lighting in the Gold Coast
Permanent lighting on the Gold Coast depends on the building. Nothing gets fastened to cut stone, so on limestone and brownstone fronts a permanent system is only possible where there is a suitable edge that is not stone to mount on, and the plan goes to your board before anything is installed. Where it fits, it runs warm white most nights and color from your phone. Permanent systems start around $3,000 for a typical roofline. If you would rather keep it seasonal, color changing RGBW C9 lights start around $1,400 and cover Halloween through Christmas from one October install.
The board approves before the crew arrives
In most of the Gold Coast the person who says yes to a lighting plan is not the only person who has to. Condo boards, building management and the historic district all shape what can go where, and a plan that ignores that gets stopped on install day. We produce a drawing and a written scope for the board rather than a verbal description, we specify removable fixings only, and we schedule around the building's own rules for lift access, service elevators and work hours. It adds a week to the front of the job and removes the week you would otherwise lose in the middle of it.
What a Gold Coast install costs
Seasonal lighting for an average house starts at $799 and up, depending on the complexity, height and access of the job. That figure describes a detached suburban house and is the wrong unit here. Gold Coast work is quoted per elevation and by access: a single brownstone front is one thing, a corner building with two public elevations and a cornice three stories up is another, and multi unit buildings are quoted per elevation rather than per unit. We quote the whole job after we walk the roofline, never off a rate card or a square footage table.
See the full Chicagoland cost guideWhat Our Clients Say
5.0 average from 35 reviews on Google, Yelp and Facebook
- M MierGoogle★★★★★
Hanging Lights Club did an absolutely great job installing our new permanent lights. We had previously used them for our Christmas lights.After such a great experience, we decided to switch with permanent lighting. They are honest, professional and thorough with their work. It’s rare these days to find a company that you could trust and they exceeded our expectations. I highly recommend them!
- Kat DizonGoogle★★★★★
They did a spectacular job installing our Christmas lights last year. I noticed that they were very detailed and careful when installing each light which resulted into having no issues at all after the installation. So thankful for them for making our place look so festive. Thank you and can’t wait to book your services again this year!
- Amrit KGoogle★★★★★
The Hanging Lights Club set up lights for Christmas lights. WOW! I was amazed at the quality of the work. They stayed there for HOURS to make sure everything was perfect and according to my specifications! I am going to recommend them to all of my friends and family! WOW! AMAZING WORK!
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Get your free Gold Coast quote
Tell us about your property and we will quote seasonal, color changing or permanent lighting, with an honest take on which one fits.