Signature Illumination Designs Showcase Former Penson House on Armstrong Avenue

As you cruise Highland Park checking out the Christmas or holiday lights, you’ll happen upon a display that will prompt a doubletake.

In a fitting tribute to the site’s historic background, the homeowners at 3756 Armstrong Ave. commissioned a landscaping lights firm to install one of the more dynamic lights displays you’ll come across in the Park Cities.

Carrollton-based Signature Illumination Designs is behind this particular colorful display. Founder Scott Beverly directed a six-man crew to install 3,500 strings of lights (170,000 total) on about 130 trees and shrubs.

High Impact Holiday Lights in Highland Park

It took the crew 24 days to complete the project, and the result is a display with illuminated blue, orange, purple, and multicolor lights covering the property’s greenery. The corner lot is slightly hilly and overlooks HP’s priciest streets. The presentation casts a beautiful holiday glow in the neighborhood.

The property at 3756 Armstrong Ave. is where the Penson House once stood. It’s a bright homage to the historic house, which was designed for Nancy and John G. “Jack” Penson in 1954 by architect O’Neill Ford.

The property was auctioned by Heritage Auctions for $4.95 million in 2016 and the house was subsequently razed by auto dealer Lute Riley, who then sold the 0.85-acre lot.

A new house was built on the property, and the most recent owners at 3756 Armstrong Ave. turned to Signature Illumination Designs for the holiday design.

Signature has clients in Park Cities, Preston Hollow, and Lakewood in addition to Austin, Houston, and Miami. The company has installed projects at the owners’ residences of each major sports team in Dallas-Fort Worth (Cowboys, Rangers, and Mavericks) and players as well.

Before this year, Signature took on holiday lighting projects as filler to its already-busy landscape lighting business. But for reasons Beverly couldn’t determine, Signature found itself busier than usual with holiday lights projects, prompting him to deploy more crews.

“We’d do anywhere from $50,000 to $75,000 in lights; this year, we did almost $400,000 in Christmas lights,” Beverly said. “One particular project [3756 Armstrong Ave.] was $180,000.”

Beverly founded the company in 2009 to create one-of-a-kind custom lighting designs. In 2021, Signature was recognized as one of the top 250 fast-growing private companies in Texas by Inc.com.

Holiday Lighting is Big Business

Several exterior lighting companies create magic for the holidays. Like Signature, they seem to be taking advantage of a resurgence in landscape lighting presentations. One theory: The pandemic has prompted people to focus on showcasing their homes.

Beverly, who’s regarded as a thought leader in the lighting industry, doesn’t have a solid answer on why professionally designed holiday displays are becoming more popular.

“We’re just celebrating that there’s more,” Beverly said. “It could be that 75 percent of our clients are transplants from California and they have more cash in hand.”

Whatever the reason, it’s prompted Beverly to think about leaning into the trend.

“Next year, we’ll thinking about enhancing or lighting trees to music,” he said. “We’re seeing, too, where they’re coming out with different laser elements to project [decorations].”