10 ms·

TWA Hotel Inside Eero Saarinen's JFK Airport Terminal Open for Reservations

97 points by curtis 8y ago

arnon 8y ago
I'm just happy the gorgeous building is being used again, not being demolished.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  Opened up the article to look at the pictures, and I have to say that they exceeded my expectations. It’s a really nice looking building!
  - keithpeter 8y ago
    Good quality 1960s buildings made of concrete with stone flagging and wood paneling inside are nice spaces. I always remember the feeling of light and space in the 1960s blocks I worked in at University (1980s, buildings then 20 years old)
nabla9 8y ago
Eero Saarinen had amazing neo-futuristic style. IBM, Thomas J. Watson Research Center is another example of his work with similar style. Sans the asbestos and lead paint these buildings are amazing.
- ghaff 8y ago
  For anyone in the Boston/Cambridge area, there are a couple nice examples at MIT as well. (Kresge Auditorium and the Chapel.) He also did the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
drfuchs 8y ago
The article doesn’t have a picture of one of the most striking features of the TWA terminal: its iconic Tunnel to the gates. Walking through it really made you feel like you were leaving one world and entering another, futuristic, one. Here’s one image that doesn’t quite do it justice — the bottom of http://edgeofthecityblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/jfk-twa-terminal-may-finally-become.html http://edgeofthecityblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/jfk-twa-termin...
- chinathrow 8y ago
  Thanks for that reference, I was sure I've seen that tunnel somewhere before. It was used in Catch me if you can. https://untappedcities.com/2013/11/19/film-locations-leonardo-dicaprio-jfk-airport-twa-flight-center-terminal-catch-me-if-you-can/ https://untappedcities.com/2013/11/19/film-locations-leonard...
Reason077 8y ago
Hopefully they've got a good supply of that TWA-logo-embossed glasswear, because those are definitely going to go missing.
CaliforniaKarl 8y ago
One picture shows a rotary phone on a side table. I really hope that is the actual phone model that each room will have!
- frutiger 8y ago
  The rooms at The Ned in London (a restored 1920s Bank, complete with a vault turned into a cocktail bar) also has Bakelites as phones in every room.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
    I suspect the TWA hotel ones are not bakelite telephones (cf. images from https://www.google.com/search?q=bakelite+telephone https://www.google.com/search?q=bakelite+telephone ). The bakelite phones had some edges and were really heavy. The photo seems a later 70s/80s model with a softer plastic shell that would not really hurt if tossed at you. I think they had to weigh those down with some metal inside,
crazygringo 8y ago
I visited the terminal a few years ago as part of the Open House New York weekend -- it's amazing, simultaneously feels like you're time-traveling to the past (an actual Mad Men-era cocktail bar that hadn't been restored yet) as well as the past's idea of the future (like you're on a Star Trek set). It was such an imaginative space, so earnestly futuristic without a trace of irony or embarrassment. Apparently Open House New York was instrumental in preventing the terminal from being abolished -- once the public was able to see it for the first time, there was then enough public pressure to keep it. I find it strange that the photos in this article only show the terminal itself (used as a lobby) and the inside of the hotel rooms, but not a single photo of the exterior of the hotel towers. Here's a gallery that gives a much better idea of the hotel itself, under construction: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/3/26/17164804/twa-hotel-eero-saarinen-jfk-airport https://ny.curbed.com/2018/3/26/17164804/twa-hotel-eero-saar...
- iguy 8y ago
  The main buildings are just big blocks, maybe nothing to show. But they must contain all these restaurants etc, not just rooms -- so guests will probably only walk through the lobby a few times. Have a drink there, I guess. Still, it's really great that they kept the building. Super hard to imagine this being the right scale for an airport, where would you put the endless snaking queue for the x-ray machines?
  - ghaff 8y ago
    At the time that the terminal was being closed down, I mentioned it to someone at my company who had been a higher-up at an airline (very post-TWA) which used that terminal. His comment was basically that it was a really awful terminal :-)
    - iguy 8y ago
      I had to check but it only closed in 2001, I'm sure it was really awful to use by then! Never went there, but can confirm air travel was not very Mad Men by that point.
curtis 8y ago
It just occurred to me that the chairs are a very similar color to the chairs in the space station Hilton in 2001 A Space Odyssey: https://filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2001-space-station-5-lobby.jpg https://filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2001...
- jedberg 8y ago
  That was basically what everyone agreed the future would look like in the 1960s. :) In fact I seem to remember reading somewhere that Kubrick was inspired by this terminal, but I can't find that now, so my mind may have made that up.
  - curtis 8y ago
    I don't know if Kubrick ever traveled through the terminal since he apparently had a serious fear of flying. It seems likely that some of the people involved with the production of 2001 would have, though. And it would have been brand new at the time.
jhbadger 8y ago
It's nice that this has been saved, but it is unfortunate that the arguably more interesting Pan Am Worldport wasn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(Pan_Am) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(Pan_Am)

97 points by curtis 8y ago

arnon 8y ago

I'm just happy the gorgeous building is being used again, not being demolished.

saagarjha 8y ago
Opened up the article to look at the pictures, and I have to say that they exceeded my expectations. It’s a really nice looking building!
- keithpeter 8y ago
  Good quality 1960s buildings made of concrete with stone flagging and wood paneling inside are nice spaces. I always remember the feeling of light and space in the 1960s blocks I worked in at University (1980s, buildings then 20 years old)

nabla9 8y ago

Eero Saarinen had amazing neo-futuristic style. IBM, Thomas J. Watson Research Center is another example of his work with similar style. Sans the asbestos and lead paint these buildings are amazing.

ghaff 8y ago
For anyone in the Boston/Cambridge area, there are a couple nice examples at MIT as well. (Kresge Auditorium and the Chapel.) He also did the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

drfuchs 8y ago

The article doesn’t have a picture of one of the most striking features of the TWA terminal: its iconic Tunnel to the gates. Walking through it really made you feel like you were leaving one world and entering another, futuristic, one. Here’s one image that doesn’t quite do it justice — the bottom of http://edgeofthecityblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/jfk-twa-terminal-may-finally-become.html http://edgeofthecityblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/jfk-twa-termin...

chinathrow 8y ago
Thanks for that reference, I was sure I've seen that tunnel somewhere before. It was used in Catch me if you can. https://untappedcities.com/2013/11/19/film-locations-leonardo-dicaprio-jfk-airport-twa-flight-center-terminal-catch-me-if-you-can/ https://untappedcities.com/2013/11/19/film-locations-leonard...

Reason077 8y ago

Hopefully they've got a good supply of that TWA-logo-embossed glasswear, because those are definitely going to go missing.

CaliforniaKarl 8y ago

One picture shows a rotary phone on a side table. I really hope that is the actual phone model that each room will have!

frutiger 8y ago
The rooms at The Ned in London (a restored 1920s Bank, complete with a vault turned into a cocktail bar) also has Bakelites as phones in every room.
- B1FF_PSUVM 8y ago
  I suspect the TWA hotel ones are not bakelite telephones (cf. images from https://www.google.com/search?q=bakelite+telephone https://www.google.com/search?q=bakelite+telephone ). The bakelite phones had some edges and were really heavy. The photo seems a later 70s/80s model with a softer plastic shell that would not really hurt if tossed at you. I think they had to weigh those down with some metal inside,

crazygringo 8y ago

I visited the terminal a few years ago as part of the Open House New York weekend -- it's amazing, simultaneously feels like you're time-traveling to the past (an actual Mad Men-era cocktail bar that hadn't been restored yet) as well as the past's idea of the future (like you're on a Star Trek set). It was such an imaginative space, so earnestly futuristic without a trace of irony or embarrassment. Apparently Open House New York was instrumental in preventing the terminal from being abolished -- once the public was able to see it for the first time, there was then enough public pressure to keep it. I find it strange that the photos in this article only show the terminal itself (used as a lobby) and the inside of the hotel rooms, but not a single photo of the exterior of the hotel towers. Here's a gallery that gives a much better idea of the hotel itself, under construction: https://ny.curbed.com/2018/3/26/17164804/twa-hotel-eero-saarinen-jfk-airport https://ny.curbed.com/2018/3/26/17164804/twa-hotel-eero-saar...

iguy 8y ago
The main buildings are just big blocks, maybe nothing to show. But they must contain all these restaurants etc, not just rooms -- so guests will probably only walk through the lobby a few times. Have a drink there, I guess. Still, it's really great that they kept the building. Super hard to imagine this being the right scale for an airport, where would you put the endless snaking queue for the x-ray machines?
- ghaff 8y ago
  At the time that the terminal was being closed down, I mentioned it to someone at my company who had been a higher-up at an airline (very post-TWA) which used that terminal. His comment was basically that it was a really awful terminal :-)
  - iguy 8y ago
    I had to check but it only closed in 2001, I'm sure it was really awful to use by then! Never went there, but can confirm air travel was not very Mad Men by that point.

curtis 8y ago

It just occurred to me that the chairs are a very similar color to the chairs in the space station Hilton in 2001 A Space Odyssey: https://filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2001-space-station-5-lobby.jpg https://filmandfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2001...

jedberg 8y ago
That was basically what everyone agreed the future would look like in the 1960s. :) In fact I seem to remember reading somewhere that Kubrick was inspired by this terminal, but I can't find that now, so my mind may have made that up.
- curtis 8y ago
  I don't know if Kubrick ever traveled through the terminal since he apparently had a serious fear of flying. It seems likely that some of the people involved with the production of 2001 would have, though. And it would have been brand new at the time.

jhbadger 8y ago

It's nice that this has been saved, but it is unfortunate that the arguably more interesting Pan Am Worldport wasn't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(Pan_Am) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldport_(Pan_Am)