Henry Lenny, a Mexican-born icon of architecture, who designed some of Santa Barbara’s most well-known buildings, has died. He was 77.

Lenny designed the Highway 101 bridge over State Street, the Granada Garage and Storke Placita, including its controversial King Carlos statue, and led the restoration of the historic El Paseo and Casa de la Guerra, among dozens of other projects.

He also had a hand in elements of Paseo Nuevo, the Biltmore Hotel and Fess Parker Red Lion Inn.

Lenny died May 26 of colon cancer, something that his longtime partner, Renee Nichols, said he kept secret to most people. On the day he died, he was surrounded by family members and was listening to “Perfidia,” a song about lost love sung by Andrea Bocelli.

Lenny was both an architect and an artist, a romantic who loved the city and passionately painted and drew some of its most celebrated buildings. He was refined, classy and combined an air of sophistication and sometimes whimsy in his works.

“He was one of the most inventive architects I have ever known,” said Brian Barnwell, a land use appraiser who knew Lenny for 40 years. “He had style. It just rolled off his pen.”

Barnwell said Lenny was part of the crew of those who loved Santa Barbara enough to walk the town and get a perspective one can get only with contact.

“He was a sidewalk participant in our city,” Barnwell said. “He walked and looked. He knew what the buildings were and why they were there. It wasn’t something you could learn from a book. He was actually participating. I liked him a lot.”

Lenny was born Nov. 18, 1947, in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was the oldest of four siblings. As a teen, he first came to Santa Barbara to help care for his ailing father, who died on Lenny’s 15th birthday, and later his mother. 

During that time, Lenny worked as a busboy at El Paseo Restaurant and at Mission Linen to help take care of his family and fill the void of his, according to brother Martin.

Lenny eventually returned to Mexico and earned a degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara School of Architecture. In 1983, he returned to the area and attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo for architecture.

Lenny’s work touched projects everywhere. He designed the renovation of the El Encanto and the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. Most recently, he designed the building on Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara where Flor De Maiz stands, taking it from a drab corporate restaurant building to an elegant beachfront eatery. He also designed the Oku building next door.

He served for nearly two decades on the Santa Barbara Historic Landmarks Commission and prided himself on understanding Santa Barbara in an innate way. When an apartment project on Carrillo Street was beaten up by the Historic Landmarks Commission, the developer called in Lenny to redesign the 22-unit, three-story project. The commission in 2023 gave the project unanimous approval.

“You have the language of the Santa Barbara style down really well,” board member Robert Ooley said at the time. “You are telling a great story in this building.”

Cass Ensberg, an architect and painter who serves on the commission, said she was “heartbroken” to hear of Lenny’s death, adding that he inspired her.

“I will always remember Henry Lenny as a delightful artist and master architect so skilled in the classic principles of good design,” Ensberg said. “Even though Henry was adept and could work in any architectural style, he understood and respected what makes Santa Barbara so special, and he worked to preserve, protect and promote our signature Spanish style.”

Lenny’s work was spread out over five decades in Santa Barbara.

Assemblyman Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, worked with Lenny in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Hart was on the City Council.

“Henry was a visionary, a renaissance man as he was an artist, craftsman, world traveler and philosopher,” Hart said. “Santa Barbara was his canvas, and he wove his buildings beautifully in the rich tapestry of our town.”

Lenny’s work stretched beyond Santa Barbara’s ocean and mountains.

His work and buildings can be seen throughout California, in New York, Mexico, England, Panama, Guatemala, India, China and the United Arab Emerites.

Lenny worked for years in a firm with architect Bill Mahan before he ventured out on his own. He formed a close relationship with architect Ed DeVicente, who said Lenny was his mentor and the first architect he worked with in Santa Barbara. He first worked with Lenny in 1999 before they reconnected in 2010.

They worked on solar panels on the Granada Garage, Patxi’s Pizza on State Street, Flor de Maiz, Oku, and the Biergarten in the Funk Zone.

DeVicente said Lenny wrote the design guidelines for El Pueblo Viejo, Santa Barbara’s historic downtown district. DeVicente called him “transformational.”

“Henry just loved to create a surprise or a little twist to create excitement and go beyond red tile roofs and stucco,” DeVicente said.

Lenny had a love for wrought iron and glass orbs, he said.

“It was himself as a person and through his architecture that he made people feel important or their projects important,” DeVicente said. “His passion wasn’t just in his craft, but how he applied that to his specific clients and projects to really show the client another side of themselves that they didn’t know existed.”

Architect Brian Cearnal called Lenny “a dear soul” and in many respects a “classic artist and architect.” Lenny loved to create his renderings in watercolors, Cearnal said.

“People would hire him to do these beautiful watercolors to make their projects special,” Cearnal said.

He always had a sketchbook, Cearnal said, and palm trees waving in the wind was one of his trademarks.

“He was an extraordinary talent and romantic,” Cearnal said. “He loved design and he loved talking.”

His brother, Martin, said Lenny would wake up enthusiastically each morning to start his day, beginning at a café, always sitting outside enjoying his daily coffee in the brisk morning air, while sketching scenery and buildings on napkins.

Lenny is survived by Nichols, his partner of 25 years; his brothers, Fred and Martin; his sister, Rose Lenny Philbin; and many nieces and nephews. One of his nephews, Kai Lenny, is an American professional big wave surfer.

“He meant the world to me,” Nichols said. “He was an inspiration to me. He directed me and pushed me in the directions I wanted to go ultimately with songwriting and encouraged me in everything I wanted to do.”