Action heroes, spy thrillers, political drama, war, hurricanes and impressive art – those stories are all here at the New Orleans Lakefront Airport as seen in 1933 shortly after its construction. In its early years, it ranked among the nation’s largest and most advanced airports. And its main terminal building was, and is, an architectural splendor with a magnificent Art Deco interior that reflected the age of Amelia Earhart, the Great Gatsby, Bogart and Bacall, and a new age of international air travel.
Constructed by the Orleans Levee Board between 1929 and 1933 at a cost of about $4.5 million, the airport was one of Gov. Huey Long’s pet projects. True to political times in Louisiana, the Levee Board hired architects Weiss, Dreyfous and Seifert to design the airport. The firm also headed many of the governor’s favorite building projects including the “new” state Capitol in Baton Rouge as well as buildings on the LSU campus. Plans for the airport called for runways to extend out into Lake Pontchartrain and the main terminal to include a restaurant (as it does now), post office and overnight accommodations for travelers, one of whom was Amelia Earhart who slept here in May 1937 during her ill-fated trip around the world.
Fortunately, the architects who designed the terminal were masters of the Art Deco style. The company hired the Mexican-born New Orleans sculptor Enrique Alférez to create bas-relief friezes for the building’s interior and exterior and Newcomb College art instructor Xavier Gonzalez to paint murals for the upstairs atrium walls, depicting the wonders of international air travel. Initially, the airport bore the name Shushan Airport for levee board chairman and Huey Long crony Abe Shushan, who emblazoned his name and initials throughout the airport, including doorknobs. That changed after the political scandals of the late 1930s when Shushan and other Long allies fell from power. Out went Shushan’s name and initials. And in 1939 the Levee Board renamed the airport New Orleans Airport, which remained the city’s primary airport until 1946 with the opening of Moisant Field, now Louis Armstrong International Airport, in Kenner.
Over the years, the lakefront airport has continued to service private, corporate, military and commercial flights. Architecturally speaking, however, it did suffer a bleak period beginning in 1964 when officials decided to “modernize” the airport. Interior ceilings were lowered and the walls, including Gonzalez’s murals, were covered with wooden panels. Large sections of Alférez’s exterior Art Deco designs were destroyed to make way for large, drab concrete slabs that covered the building’s exterior. And then came Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Turning tragedy into opportunity, and thanks to hurricane restoration grants from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, or FEMA, the Orleans Levee District restored the terminal to its original and stunning architectural glory.
As a historical sidebar, the airport terminal served as a location for almost a dozen movies, including the James Bond 1973 spy thriller “Live and Let Die,” the 2011 superhero “Green Lantern,” and the Ray Charles 2004 biopic “Ray.”
