TWA

 

The TWA Terminal at John K. Kennedy Airport. Designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen, the building was commissioned as part of a major expansion of JFK (then named Idlewild Airport) in the mid-1950s to accommodate the Post WWII boom in commercial air travel. With its fluid, swooping Neo-Futurist curves, the building captures the sensation of flight and the optimism of the Jet Age.

The terminal opened in 1962, though unfortunately Saarinen did not live to see its completion, having passed away in 1961. Also unfortunately, despite having been built as a symbol of the jet age, it quickly proved to be too small to serve the increasing size and number of jet airliners, especially after Boeing introduced its mammoth 747 in 1970. The terminal eventually closed in 2001, but it had been named a New York City Landmark and placed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and so avoided demolition. In 2019, the renovated terminal re-opened as a hotel.