When the legislative session opens next week, the House will have at least one up on the Senate. The chamber’s chandelier weighs in at 200 pounds heavier than the Senate’s chandelier after a restoration brought the lighting fixture to a total of 1,700 pounds.

“I think that (the legislators) will poke each other over it,” joked Sergeant at Arms Leon Brandli.

The Senate chandelier will be restored this summer, after session. Like the House chandelier, it will be shipped to St. Louis and then returned in 3,000 pieces to be reassembled.

Restoration of the House chandelier was part of a larger project that saw the entire lower chamber returned to its historic glory.

Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, unveiled the renovated chamber to legislators and members of the public on Wednesday.

Before raising the chandelier to its position — it will hang 20 feet lower than it did before the restoration — Hullinghurst asked observers to note the redone walls and the ceiling, featuring skylights that had been hidden above a drop ceiling for decades.

https://youtu.be/Cf9G_YLu8T8

“We can now have the sun shining down on us,” she said.

When the roof is redone next year, there will be even more light, according to Chief Sergeant at Large John Wallin.

But Hullinghorst was quick to remind everybody how the chamber had only recently looked. “It was covered in — can I say it? — awful, hideous acoustic tile.”

Prior to the remodel, acoustic tiles lined the now vibrant stenciled walls, which were resurrected from the 1895 originals designed by artist Manual Hill. The House is painted in green and the Senate in red, reflecting the colors used in the upper and lower chambers of the British Parliament, according to Brandli.

The 1950s were not a good time for architecture, Hullinghorst said. In decades past, designers reportedly considered replacing the House’s brass chandelier with florescent lighting.

Legislators and visitors may notice what looks like faux light bulbs surrounding the chamber. They look fake because they are. During the renovation, workers discovered that the decorative rosettes that line the walls were actually part of a lighting network. They don’t work because they are direct current, which isn’t the standard anymore, Wallin noted. So, during restoration, the light bulb shells were just glued into place.

“I once saw a photo of the original room, so I knew this could all be done,” said Barbara Turner, barely taking the time to look away from the ceiling during the unveiling. “The stenciled walls are great, but the ceiling is a real masterpiece.”

Turner has spent a good amount of time in the Capitol. She was the manager of visitor services from 1996 to 2010.

She was accompanied by current volunteer tour guide Edna Pelzmann, who has been guiding visitors for 13 years.

“It’s much more impressive,” Pelzman said. “It’s pretty spectacular.”

The $6 million renovation of the two chambers was the result of one simple question: Can we fix that crooked radiator?

Then-state Rep. Fank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, wondered if the eyesore could be fixed after noticing it at random one day in the chamber.

Sorry, tilting the radiator back into place was too much of a project, staffers told McNulty, so it remained — until McNulty became speaker of the house. The radiator project provided a peek behind the tiles. where remnants of the original wall art were found.

It took just over three months for Jill Eidie of Evergreen Architectural Arts to finish the stenciling on the walls and ceiling.

“It’s hard to believe they ever covered (the ceiling) up,” said Rep. Susan Lontine, D-Denver.

— kara@coloradostatesman.com

Video by Kara Mason/The Colorado Statesman. Photo of a worker dismantling the historic House brass chandelier on May 18 by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman