Classes may still be in session, but if you’re walking past The Colonial on Court Street, it looks like the holidays came early this year.
The popular Downtown Binghamton spot will feature bright lights on the exterior of its building and Christmas music playing from now until mid-to-late January, designed by Binghamton University student Jesse Pelzar.
Pelzar, a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering, is a co-founder of two apps called Pulse, which shows local events, and LoomVR, which is a virtual reality language-learning startup, as well as a phone-fixing business called Phonofix BU. After being recommended by the owner of The Colonial’s friend, he designed the light display, coordinated the music and installed many of the lights along with the electrician The Colonial provided. The Colonial paid for all the supplies, and Pelzar received payment for his work.
With only blueprints to work with, Pelzar began designing the display around Halloween and completed the designs and LED counts by Nov. 5. The lights were officially up and ready by Nov. 25.
“They just gave me blueprints and I was on my own at that point to figure it out,” Pelzar said. “They’re not tech-savvy people, they’re business owners and they knew it was up to me to make sure this happened, that the execution went perfectly.”
Co-owner and executive chef of The Colonial, Jordan Rindgen, said they love celebrating the holidays, and wanted to outdo their interior decorating from last year, which included lights and other decor all throughout the ceiling, tables and bars. The lights have been well received so far, and he said he heard from customers that they give the area a New York City vibe.
“The area is growing and expanding, and it’s nice to do something different and see some change,” Ringden said. “We hope to absolutely continue this.”
Pelzar was responsible for getting the lights, controllers and cables, and worked with the electrician to put them up. He used LED lights and used a program, MADRIX, which allowed him to choose from 16 million colors, animations and to sync the lights to an MP3 file.
Those who walk past will find lights flashing to the beat of the Christmas music Pelzar and the owners chose. Two songs play followed by an intermission, and 20 minutes from when the first song started, another song starts. Each song has its own light animation, and there are 20 songs in total. The music plays and lights are on from 4:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. on weekdays, and until 3:30 a.m. on weekends.
“Instead of staring at a bunch of blank buildings, people can walk by and be amused for a few minutes and see that Christmas spirit still exists wherever they go,” Pelzar said.
Tyler Hendricks, who lives above the restaurant and is a senior double-majoring in Spanish and philosophy, politics and law, said that despite the noise, he enjoys looking at the lights every time he walks into his house.
“At first I hated the holiday music blasting right next to my room but after a solid week of not being able to focus every night, you honestly just get used to it and it just becomes white noise,” Hendricks said.