Richard Alvin Senechal, AIA – 50th Reunion Essay

Richard Alvin Senechal, AIA

2900 Avondale Court

The Colony, TX 75056

917-428-6253

Spouse(s): Mary Margaret (Wood) Senechal (1969)

Child(ren): Ann Elizabeth Senechal, (1976), Sarah Marie Senechal, (1982)

Grandchild(ren): Charles James McGovern(2016)

Education: YC, BA 1969; Yale School of Architecture, M Arch 1974

National Service: USNR, 1966–1972

Career: Corporate architect specializing in hospitality. Responsible for hotel, resort and casino design or design / construction for Marriott (regional), Beacon / Guest Quarters, Hilton, Disney, Wyndham, Loews Hotels.

College: Berkeley

I knew by the time I was 10 years old that I was going to be an architect. I was already designing buildings in the back of notebooks when school was boring. I have no idea where that notion came from. There are no architects in my family, and none with any visibility in Fargo. I was warned, when I was still young enough to choose another path, that architecture was a lousy way to make a living, but I wouldn’t be deterred. I discovered, when I was about five years into my career, that the naysayers had been right. It was hard to support a young family on the pittance that junior architects are paid. When I was recruited into the corporate world the incentive to leave private practice was financial. Executive pay tends to be less affected by discipline. Fortunately I found that corporate architecture gave me more influence over the design of the built environment than I could have expected to have in private practice.

I will be the first to admit that I’m not particularly ambitious. I have loved being an architect but have worked throughout my life to support my family—to be the best nest builder I can be. To this day I love the Work—programming, planning, and designing hotels—which is why I continue to consult. Unfortunately the Work, as I suspect it is in many professions, is a small part of “working,” which tends to be more about the drudgery of budgets and schedules and spreadsheets and contracts and personnel management and corporate politics, none of which are either charming or personally rewarding. Fortunately I have found great personal satisfaction in seeing my ideas, and the thousands of intricate decisions that go into the design of buildings, realized and become part of the built environment. I am content to be retired, although I’m still busy enough to have not yet tackled many of the projects I had planned for these years. I suspect that I would have found sudden and absolute retirement wrenching. Until I began to contemplate giving up my life’s work, I don’t think I understood how much of me it had become. I’m grateful to have this gentle transition. I swear I will paint again one of these days.