To name one of the busiest international air passenger gateways in the United States, New York’s JFK International Airport is definitely one of them. However, the hub is often included on lists of America’s worst airports. And this could be worth a visit this weekend when the airport opens the doors to its classic TWA Flight Center terminal one last time before development. As part of the Open House New York initiative, this famed gull-winged building, which is set to become a hotel, will open its door to welcome visitors on October 18 which is one of the city’s major landmarks.
The celebrated Finnish architect Eero Saarinen designed the terminal and it was opened in 1962 and is still a celebrated icon of the Jet Age. On an artistic level, it’s seen as a masterpiece of 20th-century modernism, with sleek and flowing lines said to evoke the notion of flight. However, with time, it eventually turned out to be a dud. When the airline it was originally built for, TWA, went out of business in 2001, this terminal had been out of use. The terminal struggled to handle larger airplanes and the higher volume of passengers brought on by rapid advances in air travel.
Over the last six years the building has been painstakingly restored and included in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. MCR Development (with offices in New York and Texas) has planned to invest $265 million to turn it into JFK’s first on-site luxury hotel. The hotel owner-operator firm said that the plan is due to be completed in 2018. It will also include a museum focusing on New York City as the birthplace of the Jet Age of intercontinental travel. The history of TWA, will also be focused which was once among the premier carriers in the world.
