Lakefront Airport To Return To It's Former Glory
The Lakefront Airport was built in the 1930's. At the time of it's grand opening it was considered an architectual masterpiece. Built by the same architect that designed the Louisiana state capital building, it was the first major airport in the region, and served proudly as a general aviation airport to this day. Inside the terminal building, travellers would find an Art Deco wonderland, featuring murals by artist Xavier Gonzalez, friezes by Enrique R. Alferez and an array of stone wall and floor treatments.
Much of the terminal's architectural flash was lost to a heavy-handed renovation in the mid-1960s that encased the building's exterior in cement panels and enclosed a second-floor balcony overlooking the grand lobby, the latter step creating room for a warren of offices for the Orleans Levee Board. More recently, the building sustained wholesale damage of another kind when it took on four feet of water as Hurricane Katrina pushed Lake Pontchartrain waters inland.
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Lakefront Airport To Return To It's Former Glory The Lakefront Airport was built in the 1930's. At the time of it's grand opening it was considered an architectual masterpiece. Built by the same architect that designed the Louisiana state capital building, it was the first major airport in the region, and served proudly as a general aviation airport to this day. Inside the terminal building, travellers would find an Art Deco wonderland, featuring murals by artist Xavier Gonzalez, friezes by Enrique R. Alferez and an array of stone wall and floor treatments.
Much of the terminal's architectural flash was lost to a heavy-handed renovation in the mid-1960s that encased the building's exterior in cement panels and enclosed a second-floor balcony overlooking the grand lobby, the latter step creating room for a warren of offices for the Orleans Levee Board. More recently, the building sustained wholesale damage of another kind when it took on four feet of water as Hurricane Katrina pushed Lake Pontchartrain waters inland.
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