Noel adds that the New Orleans Lakefront Airport is predominantly self-funded, but does receive some supplemental funding from the larger Authority. The Airport is kind of our crown jewel – it’s the largest enterprise that we operate for the Orleans Levee District.” “But, following Katrina, it was said that the Levee District, which is supposed to provide flood protection for the citizens of Orleans Parish, was focusing too much on its ‘non-flood assets’ – they owned the airport and a couple of marinas and a lot of recreational space – and so they divided the non-flood assets from the flood assets and created a separate entity to manage them. “Up until the early 2000s, the Levee District owned and operated all the property,” explains Executive Director, Jesse D. The New Orleans Lakefront Airport is owned by the Orleans Levee District, but is operated by the by Non-Flood Protection Asset Management Authority. In the 1950s, Lakefront was designated as a general aviation airport, with three asphalt runways that serve private, corporate, and military traffic. Originally the major commercial airport in the New Orleans area, Lakefront Airport relinquished that role in 1946, when commercial airline service began from Moisant International Airport, now known as Louis Armstrong International Airport, a significantly larger facility located in the nearby suburb of Kenner. To make land available for the project, the Orleans Levee Board, which owns the Airport, drove a 10,000 foot retaining wall into Lake Pontchartrain and pumped in six million cubic yards of hydraulic fill to raise the field above the water. Built at a cost of $4.5 million, the 473-acre Airport opened in 1934 on a man-made peninsula jutting into Lake Pontchartrain on the eastern side of the Industrial Canal, which links the lake to the Mississippi River. The New Orleans Lakefront Airport is a public use airport located five miles northeast of the central business district of New Orleans, in Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Noel, Executive Director of the New Orleans Lakefront Airport, as part of our series on U.S. When the restoration is complete the terminal will be returned to duty as the main airport building but will also be a protected historic building.The New Orleans Lakefront Airport A New Orleans traditionīusiness View Magazine interviews Jesse D. The restoration project could take until 2010 to complete by the time the outside murals are restored by hand and specialist craftsmen are appointed to carry out other major projects. Lambert Consultants LLC (RCLC) completed the engineering and construction design for the panel replacement project in mid-2008. An engineering and architectural consultancy called Richard C. The architect for the terminal restoration project is Alton Ochsner Davis. The work will require $10m and the funds will be made available from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and insurance (the Foundation for Historical Louisiana may also set up a fund to support the project). At the same time the inside mural artwork is undergoing restoration. The 1960s concrete panels will be carefully removed and the outside reliefs restored according to photographs of the terminal recovered from Tulane University. “The Shushan Airport terminal complex was designed by Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth.” The building was turned into a featureless block resembling a fall-out shelter by a construction company called Cimini and Meric who erected the metal grid that holds the overlay concrete panels in place. In the 1960s the airport received an ill fated restoration that saw many of its 150 windows bricked up or hidden behind large concrete panels. The outside of the building is adorned by 9ft-high ornamental sculptured panels. The overall appearance was one of luxury with additional artwork on the inside in the shape of a bronze coloured frieze of the history of aviation and a sculpture for the middle of the lawn in front of the terminal by Enrique Alferez called ‘Fountain of the Four Winds’. The inside was decorated using pink granite and red, grey and cream terrazzo marble as well as ceramic and mosaic tiles. The terminal had such facilities as living quarters for passengers and pilots, a medical clinic, an outdoor swimming pool, the ‘Flying Lounge’ bar, the walnut room (an old venue for dances), a parachute store, an aluminium and glass ATC tower with rotating beacon (will be turned into an observation tower), a retail store, an upmarket restaurant (still open) and a spacious 2.5-storey reception hall. The terminal building was adorned inside by decorative murals by the celebrated artist Xavier Gonzales. The Shushan Airport terminal complex was designed by Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth and was one of many art deco buildings produced at that time costing $4.5m to build.
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