Move Over, Michelangelo : Painter, Crew Rise to Great Heights to Restore Frieze on Ceiling of City Hall Lobby

Joe Nicoletti may be the only worker at City Hall whom everybody looks up to.

That’s because he’s not a politician, a lobbyist or a bureaucrat.

He’s a painter who is helping to launch an ambitious, $10-million City Hall renovation project by restoring a frieze painted 67 years ago on the Main Street lobby ceiling.

Working at night atop 12-foot-high scaffolding, Nicoletti and a handful of assistants have scrubbed away a thick layer of cigar and cigarette smoke and “a disgusting buildup of starch” that was used to seal decorative Greco-Roman stenciling.

They work standing up, enamel running down their arms and dripping into their faces and hair as they repaint the artwork.

“Our backs are killing us. We can’t wait for the job to end,” said Nicoletti, 32, of Santa Monica.

“Forget Michelangelo--we tried lying on our backs like he did at the Sistine Chapel, but that was a real hassle. Sometimes we wear little neck braces. I’ve got a back strain. I bought a back brace the other day.”

The ceiling work is the first phase of Project Restore, a refurbishing effort planned since 1987 to return City Hall to its Depression-era glory.

Nicoletti won the $126,587 painting contract in September, 1991. But red tape and a seismic repair project in the lobby delayed the start of work until two months ago.

“When City Hall was first built they approved the plans, poured the foundation, erected steel and had the whole thing ready to occupy in a year and a half,” Nicoletti said. “It took me 2 1/2 years just to start my little painting project.”

Ironically, Nicoletti won his contract by outbidding the son of the original frieze painter. Anthony T. Heinsbergen of Los Angeles said he was irritated at first at not being chosen to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“I’d dug up the original sketches. It would have been logical for me to do it,” Heinsbergen said. “But Joe’s certainly capable. I have high regard for him.”

Officials are also pleased with the paint job, said Georgia Rosenberry, president of Project Restore. Her group plans to tackle decorative painting and tile work on the City Hall’s third floor--where its famed rotunda is frequently used as a backdrop for movies and TV shows.

“We’ve done a good job in matching what was done back in the late ‘20s,” she said. “That whole lobby area’s going to come alive.”

The lobby certainly comes to life when Nicoletti and his painters roll their scaffolding into place. They turn on floodlights and work to the beat of a boombox blasting tunes by Ella Fitzgerald and the Gypsy Kings. They make certain that City Hall guards stationed below them stand clear of the paint-drip zone.

Painting usually is done from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. On Thursdays, though, the crew knocks off early.

“That night we try to go to some historical spot like the Biltmore,” Nicoletti said. “We peruse the decorative painting there--with a drink in our hands, of course.”

Night life outside City Hall is often a sight to behold too.

“Even though we see people getting arrested right outside the door at night, we feel good about contributing to the core of the city,” he said.

Despite his strained back, Nicoletti has no plans to file a disability claim. “You can’t fight City Hall,” he said with a laugh.

Ceiling artistry aside, some officials would say that attitude alone puts him head and shoulders above a lot of people.