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In our humble opinion, it just might become the coolest hotel in the world.
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The Eero Saarinen-designed Terminal 5 at JFK has lain dormant since TWA moved out a decade ago, but now the Port Authority is trying to make it part of a new hotel.
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An aerial view of the terminal the year it was built, 1961.
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The building is as much sculpture as structure.
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Saarinen, one of the greatest modernist American architects, wanted the building to evoke flight.
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...including its notable arrivals and departures board.
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Inside, there are almost no beams.
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The roof is simply one giant swooping piece of concrete.
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Some retro seating.
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The tunnel, now dark, photographed during an art exhibition in 2004.
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This sign, atop a tunnel that led to the old gates, reads "to lobby and baggage." It would still be fitting for a new hotel.
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Saarinen designed every detail of the building...
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The Port Authority wants to build the hotel between the old Terminal 5 (left) and the new one built by JetBlue (right). Aviation and preservation concerns could complicate that plan, though.
World Architecture
Amazing. A reminder that air travel used to be a total event. Getting TO the plane was as much of an adventure as the flight itself! How thrilling it must have been to walk through this terminal!! OK, so I’m lost in nostalgia but who can blame me? This type of visual romance is what we all need more of these days.
I worked for TWA in the 60′s , flying then way a joy not like now where you have to fly to the airlines hub first, I think deregulation screwed up airlines & flying….Eugene M. L.I.N.Y.
I remember referring to this building as the mushroom building…and that long walkway to the gates was like an adventure…..A more simple and uncomplicated time….
all the airports should be art galleries or has modern touch , this is a simple thing which raise the sychology of traveller, or to remember and to make the traveller feel flying in dreams,….but in this JFK I have noticed a very bad finishing works, curves ,plastering facades or glass works inside . I am wondering how your engineers accept this distorsion of beauty by such horrible faults.Finishimg engineer should be an artist talant engineer not only just an execution engineer specially in such projects .
i recall walking through this terminal as a young boy, shirt and tie.
When I was a kid in the 60′s I remember my dad taking me to JFK to seethe airplanes and all the “modern” buildings, when you could just walk around…..those were the days.
at a time before instant communication is killing our sense of reality.
I remember having cocktails here years ago. I loved TWA. A standard very difficult to attain these days. No one treated you like TWA, no one.
This shot even makes me want to see the hotel.
I SAW THE ORIGINAL PLANS FOR THIS BUILDING IN 55 WHEN I WAS A GROUND HOSTESS AND WAS AWESTRUCK!! WHEN IT WAS BUILT, IT WAS EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL. YOU WALKED INTO IT AND YOU WERE ENTERING A DIFFERENT WORLD! IT MUST BE PRESERVED!!!! I WILL BE THERE SUNDAY TO PAY HOMAGE TO A TRUE WORK OF BEAUTY.
SAW THE ORIGINAL PLANS FOR THIS BUILDING WHEN I WAS A HOSTES FOR TWA, I WAS AWESTRUCK BY IT,S BEAUTY,EVEN MORE SO WHEN IT WAS BUILT. I SHALL GO TO PAY HOMAGE TO IT AND ALL MY HAPPY MEMORIES OF TWA THIS SUNDAY.IT REALLY HAS TO BE SAVED!!!!!!!