After 15 years of disuse, the Googie architecture-inspired TWA Flight Center at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport will be transformed into a hotel.
Gizmodo reports that the city’s Port Authority chose a renovation proposal from Jet Blue this week. The $265 million construction project got backing from Governor Andrew Cuomo this summer.
The hotel will have 505 rooms, 40,000 sf of meeting space, as many as eight restaurants, and a 10,000 sf observation deck that overlooks the runway. The old terminal will serve as the hotel’s lobby, and the rest of the rooms will be set back in a new building, according to Crain’s New York. Construction will begin in 2016, and the hotel is expected to open in 2018.
The terminal was designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen and built in the early 1960s. The roof helped to make the building stand out. Composed of four counterbalanced shells made of thin concrete, it looked like a bird taking flight, as Gizmodo wrote.
The TWA terminal was also one of the first airport terminals to use some of the most ubiquitous technologies. It utilized baggage carousels, automatic doors, jetways, and electronic departure time boards that were constantly updated.
Many photos of the terminal’s retro-futuristic interior can be seen on Curbed NY.
Photo: Seamus Murray/Creative Commons
Photo: Brett Weinstein/Wikimedia Commons
Photo: julesho/Creative Commons
Related Stories
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction market benefits from improving economy, new technology [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Following years of fairly lackluster demand for commercial property remodeling, reconstruction revenue is improving, according to the 2014 Giants 300 report.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Structure Tone, Turner, and Gilbane top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction contractor and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, URS, and Wiss, Janney, Elstner top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HDR, and HOK top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 23, 2014
Heathrow Airport could become a city of 190,000 inhabitants
New plans have been introduced to turn London's Heathrow Airport into a city. If those plans ever come to fruition, "Heathrow City" could support 90,000 jobs and 190,000 people. It could also add almost $13 billion to the UK economy.
| Jul 23, 2014
Architecture Billings Index up nearly a point in June
AIA reported the June ABI score was 53.5, up from a mark of 52.6 in May.
| Jul 21, 2014
Economists ponder uneven recovery, weigh benefits of big infrastructure [2014 Giants 300 Report]
According to expert forecasters, multifamily projects, the Panama Canal expansion, and the petroleum industry’s “shale gale” could be saving graces for commercial AEC firms seeking growth opportunities in an economy that’s provided its share of recent disappointments.
| Jul 18, 2014
Contractors warm up to new technologies, invent new management schemes [2014 Giants 300 Report]
“UAV.” “LATISTA.” “CMST.” If BD+C Giants 300 contractors have anything to say about it, these new terms may someday be as well known as “BIM” or “LEED.” Here’s a sampling of what Giant GCs and CMs are doing by way of technological and managerial innovation.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Construction Management Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Jacobs, Barton Malow, Hill International top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest construction management and project management firms in the United States.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Contractors [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Turner, Whiting-Turner, Skanska top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest contractors in the United States.
