Legislative Chamber to get facelift

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By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star

First, the workers removed the state senators’ chairs from their pedestals.

Then they encased their desks in cheap, chipped woodboard, leaving the Legislative Chamber looking like a warehouse, big boxes lined up and waiting to be shipped.

The wood will protect the desks from falling debris. Because for the next six months, professional cleaners will scour the chamber’s ceiling and walls in a $550,000 facelift.

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A legislative chamber cleaning project is getting underway. Capitol electrician Tahir Karimi works on electrical outlets as Chris Shelton, working with Robert Mussey Associates of Boston, documents conditions as the project begins. (Robert Becker)

A legislative chamber cleaning project is getting underway. Capitol electrician Tahir Karimi works on electrical outlets as Chris Shelton, working with Robert Mussey Associates of Boston, documents conditions as the project begins. (Robert Becker)

They’ll clean every inch of every 23-karat, gold-leaf decoration, every acoustical tile and limestone block, every square inch of walnut beam and trim.

After 80 years, every surface in a house needs to be cleaned, says Bob Ripley, Capitol administrator. 

Over the years, rain that leaked through the roof and water that seeped through the bricks stained the limestone and acoustical wall tile.

But senators will return in January to a chamber without discolored walls — and with sparkling gold lions over their heads.

Workers already fixed the mortar on exterior walls, installed a protective layer on the roof to shield against ice and water and are replacing the copper roof, Ripley said.

And accumulated grime has covered the gold artwork on the ceiling beams, darkening the cattle drive, the pioneers and their Conestoga wagons.

The difference will be dramatic.

One small area of gold stencil, already cleaned, gleams bright yellow, in contrast to its dull neighboring stencils.

Workers are even cleaning the brass railings inside the chamber, eliminating the white polish left by earlier, less knowledgeable custodians, said Tom Kaspar, a Capitol architect who has planned for this project for a year.

About a third of the cleanup and restoration costs will pay for the scaffolding, which will be installed every night for two weeks.

The scaffolding will fill the chamber and wooden stairs will lead to an elevated platform so workers can stand to clean the ceiling and beams, 33 to 40 feet above the carpeted floor. 

Conservators from the Boston area who specialize in fine art and architecture will do the bulk of the work.

Andrew Ladygo, with Architectural Conservation Services, will clean the limestone and tile walls in the chamber and lounge, with a $95,000 contract. Robert Mussey Associates will work on the gold stencil and walnut beams, with a $175,000 contract.

The leather door that leads to the viewing area was sent away for cleaning and conservation.

And the glass that separates senators from lobbyists will be replaced by new glass with no vertical bars, said Ripley.

It will be so deceptive there will be vision dots across the glass, at eye level, to remind people where it is, Ripley said.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.