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TWA Flight Center and Hotel

Trans World Airlines Flight Center at New York International (Idlewild) Airport
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TWA Flight Center and Hotel

Site overview

The TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates and built in 1956-62, is among the chief works of one of the most highly-regarded architectural firms of the modern era. Saarinen's firm revolutionized air terminal design through its use of daring concrete and glass forms and technological advances, producing a distinctive and highly-acclaimed work of expressionist architecture. The main portion of the terminal - created by four intersecting vaults separated by narrow bands of skylights and supported on four Y-shaped piers - has an upward soaring quality. The design of the building expressed Saarinen's intention "to interpret the sensation of flying" and "be experienced as a place of movement and transition."

TWA Flight Center and Hotel

Site overview

The TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates and built in 1956-62, is among the chief works of one of the most highly-regarded architectural firms of the modern era. Saarinen's firm revolutionized air terminal design through its use of daring concrete and glass forms and technological advances, producing a distinctive and highly-acclaimed work of expressionist architecture. The main portion of the terminal - created by four intersecting vaults separated by narrow bands of skylights and supported on four Y-shaped piers - has an upward soaring quality. The design of the building expressed Saarinen's intention "to interpret the sensation of flying" and "be experienced as a place of movement and transition."

TWA Flight Center and Hotel

Interior of TWA Terminal

Credit

© Max Touhey

Site overview

The TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates and built in 1956-62, is among the chief works of one of the most highly-regarded architectural firms of the modern era. Saarinen's firm revolutionized air terminal design through its use of daring concrete and glass forms and technological advances, producing a distinctive and highly-acclaimed work of expressionist architecture. The main portion of the terminal - created by four intersecting vaults separated by narrow bands of skylights and supported on four Y-shaped piers - has an upward soaring quality. The design of the building expressed Saarinen's intention "to interpret the sensation of flying" and "be experienced as a place of movement and transition."

Awards

Design

Citation of Merit

Commercial

2020

The jury awards a Design Citation of Merit for the completion of the TWA Flight Center renovation and the creation of the TWA Hotel. Designed by Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962, it is one of the world’s most iconic examples of modern architecture. The restoration project was undertaken in two phases, the first of which won a 2015 Modernism in America Award. The second phase, for which this award is given, completed both the interior and exterior Flight Center restoration and expanded the project for the new hotel use. The new hotel wings are positioned outboard of the Flight Center’s two connector tubes, preserving the primary historic scene from the main entrance. Sheathed with dark gray glass curtain walls along the curves of the building, the hotel wings are complementary but distinguishable from Saarinen’s original design and pay homage to the midcentury aesthetic. Restoration of the historic Flight Center involved work on the exterior shell, curtain wall and entrances, interior finishes, MEP and life safety systems, and landscape. Using as-built record drawings, archived records, samples, and historic photographs dating from 1964, the design team employed state-of-the-art diagnostic tools to restore the building to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Restoration, working closely with the New York State Historic Preservation Office. The Saarinen Archives at Yale University yielded original architectural drawings, specifications, shop drawings, photographs, and project material samples. Restored interior details including the split-flap Solari boards fabricated in Italy; 20 million penny tiles custom-made for the project in China; chili pepper red carpeting to match the original archival samples; upholstery and ornamental metalwork in the former first-class Ambassadors Club; and reception desks rebuilt to original specifications. Vacated in 2002, the Flight Center opened for business as the TWA Hotel in 2019 as a striking model of creative adaptive reuse while preserving the original spirit of the site.

" The project team deserves praise for the difficult task of integrating the hotel wings given the extreme tightness of the site area."
-Kim Yao, AIA, 2020 Jury chair

"The detailed restoration of the old terminal space and siting of the new hotel wings celebrate this jewel of a building."

- Bob Hruby, 2020 Jury member
Client

MCR/MORSE Development

Restoration Team

Beyer Blinder Belle, Lubrano Ciavarra Architects, Stonehill Taylor, INC Architecture & Design

Design

Award of Excellence

Commercial

2015

The Commercial Design Award of Excellence is given for the restoration of the TWA Flight Center at the John F. Kennedy International Airport. At its opening in 1962, the TWA Terminal “was celebrated as a major achievement in modern architecture and quickly became a symbol for the “golden age” of commercial aviation.” After being listed as a New York City Landmark in 1995 and the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, the sensitive work done by the New York City firm Beyer Blinder Belle restored significant details and defining features such as the failing curtain wall, the “penny-tile” finish, and removed inappropriate exterior additions. Most importantly, tours and events held at the restored terminal have inspired a resurgence in interest of Saarinen’s building by the general public. 

Jury chair, architect Michael Mills noted, “This is a masterful restoration and reuse of an architectural landmark that had been in danger of demolition. Everything about this important Eero Saarinen design was respected and preserved.”

-
Client

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Project Manager/Property Owner)

Restoration Team

Beyer Blinder Belle (Architect)

Primary classification

Transport/Communications (TRC)

Terms of protection

New York City Landmark & New York City Interior Landmark, 1994.

Designations

New York City Individual Landmark, designated on July 19, 1994

New York City Interior Landmark, designated on July 19, 1994

National Register of Historic Places, 2005

Author(s)

Jessica Smith | Docomomo US | 2017

Location

John F. Kennedy International Airport
Queens, NY, 11430

Country

US
More visitation information

Case Study House No. 21

Lorem ipsum dolor

Designer(s)

Eero Saarinen

Architect

Nationality

American, Finnish

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Related Sites

General Description

The terminal encompasses some early airport technology and advancements during the dawning of commercial jet travel, including the “satellite plan”, jetways, and baggage carousels. In the satellite plan, the “aircraft gates are clustered around structures built on the runway ramp away from the main terminal.” The form of the building itself invokes the act of flying with its “wings” and implied upward motion. The building is created “by four intersecting vaults separated by narrow bands of skylights and supported on four Y-shaped piers,” and “has an upward soaring quality.” The concrete structure “required special engineering and construction methods.”

Technical

The terminal encompasses some early airport technology and advancements during the dawning of commercial jet travel, including the “satellite plan”, jetways, and baggage carousels. The concrete structure “required special engineering and construction methods.”

Social

The construction of the terminal took place at the beginning of the “jet age” of air travel, and incorporated new technologies that reflect this social change (including the satellite plan, jetways and baggage carousels).

Cultural & Aesthetic

The TWA Terminal “is among the chief works of one of the most highly-regarded architectural firms of the modern era.” In designing the terminal, Saarinen created a “very distinctive and memorable building while still adhering to the master plan of the airport. The design of the building expressed Saarinen’s intention ‘to interpret the sensation of flying’ and ‘be experienced as a place of movement and transition.’”

Canonical status: In the TWA Terminal, “Saarinen’s firm revolutionized air terminal design through its use of daring concrete and glass forms and technological advances, producing a distinctive and highly-acclaimed work of expressionistic architecture…” ii

References

i “Gensler to Design JetBlue Terminal for JFK,” Gensler Architects, Aug. 5, 2004, 31 Jan. 2007
&lt.http://www.gensler.com/news/2004/jetblue.html>.


ii “Trans World Airlines Flight Center (now TWA Terminal A) at New York International Airport” Landmarks Preservation Commission July 19, 1994.


iii Margaret Foster, “The Terminal Takes Off,” Preservation Online. 31 August 2005, 31 January 2007
<www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arc_news_2005/083105.htm>.


iv “JetBlue Airways Celebrates Significant Construction Milestone at JFK’s Terminal Five,” JetBlue Airways Corporation Oct. 17, 2006, 31 January 2007 <http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/news.html?d=106993>.


v “DOCOMOMO Helps Safeguard Saarinen's TWA Terminal,” AIA Architect August 2001, 31 January 3007 <http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek/tw0727/0727tw1twaadd.htm>.


vi Stephanie Stubbs, “Saarinen’s TWA Terminal and the Moment of Truth,” AIA Architect September 2001, 31 January 2007 <http://www.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek/tw0727/0727tw2projecttwa.htm>. | http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1915.pdf

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