
Roche-Dinkeloo, a successor firm to Saarinen's company, designed an expansion in 1970. Two tube-shaped red-carpeted departure-arrival corridors extended outward from the terminal, connecting to the gates these would be demolished for the 2008 addition.
Eero saarinen architecture windows#
An open three-level space with tall windows originally offered views of departing and arriving jets. It has a prominent wing-shaped thin shell roof supported by four "Y"-shaped piers. The TWA Flight Center, designed for Trans World Airlines by Eero Saarinen and Associates, was erected between 19 it would operate as an air terminal until 2001. The head house and terminal and collectively known as Terminal 5 or T5. The replacement terminal is home to JetBlue's JFK operations. The head house is partially encircled by a replacement terminal building completed in 2008, and flanked by two buildings added for the hotel. The original terminal building, or head house, operated as a terminal from 1962 to 2001 and was adaptively repurposed in 2017 as part of the TWA Hotel.

The TWA Flight Center, also known as the Trans World Flight Center, is an airport terminal and hotel complex at New York City's John F. When Saarinen died unexpectedly of a brain tumor in 1961, Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo led the realization of New York’s TWA Terminal.Terminal 5, John F. Warren Platner was largely responsible for the interiors. Saarinen had worked with the same team in 1953 to 1955 in executing the Kresge Auditorium and would work with them on the main terminal at Dulles International Airport.įrom the Saarinen office, Kevin Roche, Cesar Pelli, Norman Pettula, and Edward Saad were key collaborators. To engineer the roof, Saarinen collaborated with Charles S. The terminal is a pioneering example of thin-shell construction, consisting of a reinforced concrete shell supported at the corners. The airline, with the support of Saarinen’s wife Aline, exploited the new market opportunity to carry out a most successful marketing campaign starting with the building’s first public presentation on November 12, 1957. Saarinen, who was known as an indefatigable architect, indicated to his client that he needed more time, then took another year to resolve the design. The terminal was built to span a space with a minimum of material. Thus, the TWA Terminal represents an entirely different approach than the thin concrete shells constructed at the same time. Saarinen planned the appearance of the building from a purely formal perspective mainly to exploit market opportunities. At the same time, the bird-shaped, emblematic construction featured a harmoniously coordinated interior and references to TWA’s corporate identity and thus served to convey the company’s image. Saarinen, who projected a high patronage for the terminal, conceived the terminal to speed up processes. The National Airlines Sundrome would be last, in 1969.Įero Saarinen and his Detroit-based firm were commissioned in 1955 to design the TWA Flight Center. United Airlines and Eastern Air Lines opened their own terminals in 1959, followed by American Airlines and Pan American World Airways ( Worldport) in 1960, Northwest Airlines and TWA in 1962. By 1955, TWA, being among New York’s major airlines, undertook to build its own terminal at what was then commonly called Idlewild Airport.Īfter the opening of the International Arrivals Building in 1957, the major US airlines each built their own terminals at Idlewild. In 1950, as both a domestic and international carrier, the former Transcontinental and Western Airlines changed its name to Trans World Airways. TWA had begun flying internationally in 1946 from New York’s LaGuardia Airport with flights to Paris, London, Rome, Athens, Cairo, Lisbon and Madrid. While New York International Airport at Idlewild had been operating since 1939, the need and site for a Trans World Airlines (TWA) terminal was laid out in a 1955 plan in which each major airline would build its own terminal, while smaller airlines would be served from an International Arrivals Building.
