CityRealty Insider > The Future as History: TWA Terminal at JFK

The Future as History: TWA Terminal at JFK

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Perhaps you’ve had a chance to admire it from afar but it’s hard not to notice the distinctive beauty of the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport.

Saarinen was commissioned to build the new terminal in 1956, just as the Jet Age was taking off. His directive: to capture “the spirit of flight.” The Trans World Flight Center was opened in 1962 (Saarinen died in 1961, before the building was completed).

The terminal’s soaring curves (photos at Arch Daily) do indeed evoke the feeling of flight, and its bright-white concrete exterior—braced from within by a web of steel reinforcements—has lost none of its ability to impress. The terminal was designated an historic landmark in 1994, and it was subsequently listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The terminal has been closed since 2001 but Jet Blue stepped in with plans to incorporate the historic terminal into its new Terminal 5 complex (known as T5). The airline has since built its own version of the modernist masterpiece, and the next chapter for the classic building is still being determined. The Port Authority is reviewing proposals and seeking a new tenant for the space—possibilities include a conference center, an aviation museum, and a restaurant.

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