The Drawings of Lloyd Sensat

The School of Architecture of the Allied Arts at the University of Oregon, where I studied, still had the remains of a Beaux Arts curriculum where drawing was prized. We were taught that in order to really understand something, one should draw it by hand. I hold to this principal in sprit, but it is clouded by the age of computer assisted design.  Hence, it is particularly refreshing to receive a group of sketches from a friend, Lloyd Sensat, an artist and educator.

Sensat, who with his partner, Eugene Cizak, professor and director of the Tulane University School of Architecture Preservation Studies, are important leaders in the New Orleans’ preservation movement where they live. This sketch diary from a trip to California includes images of buildings from Los Angeles (my hometown) that Lloyd and Gene visited in April. They really do allow a new way to see and understand old haunts. I particularly admire his views of Hollyhock House and the interior of the Gamble House.

I should also note that Lloyd is an authoritative source of information on everything New Orleans and is a licensed tour guide. Gene and Lloyd also head the Sun Oak Foundation, which organizes education programs about historic preservation. It is housed in a beautifully restored Creole cottage, the Nathan-Lewis-Cizek House, built circa 1836 in the Faubourg Marigny district of New Orleans.