Page 5 of 5
Queens, New York
I just want to wake up where I went to sleep
For reasons that must have made sense at the time, I was asked in 2016 to comment on my favorite building for an article for Business Insider called “The 22 Most Beautiful Buildings in the World,” which was posted in December 2016. My choice was easy. I picked Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport and said (or. more accurately, wrote) “it was designed before the age of computers and decades ahead of its time. The building uses concrete and glass to capture all of the excitement, wonder and romance of jet travel, At every view and every angle, there is something new to admire. Fifty years after it opened, it somehow manages to feel like it’s still from the future." Words I still stand by.
I never flew out of the building, and, before JetBlue, rarely flew out of JFK at all. Luckily, some 20 years ago, just as TWA was about to cease to exist, I was smart enough to visit the TWA Flight Center with a camera one last time to see it in action. The building was just as beautiful as always, even though it was pretty beat up inside and overcrowded. I knew that it would be some time before I got to see it again, if ever, and these (honestly not so great) 20 year old pictures might be all that I had left.
The building was always beautiful but almost immediately obsolete. It was designed for Lockheed Constellation planes and, soon after opening, all those smaller planes were replaced with bigger jets. Overcrowding was always an issue, although even at its worse, it probably never saw crowds like these.
In both 2011 and 2015, the TWA Flight Center opened up as a free to visit, no reservations required site for Open House New York, an annual weekend event where architects, fans of buildings and generally curious people are allowed in buildings and spaces normally closed to the public. I went both years, armed with a camera and ready to take as many pictures as I could, even if there was someone (or a hundred or so someones) in the way. The building looked a little better- the Port Authority had completed some renovations- but it still sat empty, waiting for them to figure out what to do with it.
Three years later, during A’18 (the AIA Conference on Architecture in New York), I re-re-revisited the building, now in the midst of construction, renovation and conversion into an airport hotel. They still had a lot of work if the hotel was going to open up on time in a year, and, right there and then, I decided that if it did actually open, that I would make sure to intentionally fly out of JFK (always a bit of a pain in the ass for me) just so I could have a built in excuse to stay there.
Finally.
After a quick, (almost) 20 year long flashback, we’re back to 2019 and the completed TWA Hotel. Every year (or, more accurately, almost every year) I attend the AIA Convention, wherever it may be, and in 2019 it was in Las Vegas for A’19. It was a perfect excuse to fly JetBlue out of JFK and stay here, only two weeks after the hotel’s soft opening and 20 years since it was last (really) opened to the public.
The designers and owners of the TWA Hotel went all in, and it shows. I decided to take a train to the airport- which takes (for me) about two and a half hours between a NJ Transit Train, a Long Island Railroad train and then an Air Train from Jamaica. Upon arrival, I had to then double back all the way to JetBlue Terminal 5 to get to the hotel- during the soft opening, some of the sidewalks and landscaping were still under construction. Inside JetBlue Terminal 5, you need to find your way to the arrivals level and then an elevator connects you to the tubes back to the hotel. And once you’re in the elevator, you know you’re in for something fun as you say goodbye to present day JetBlue and hello to the 1960s TWA Hotel.
The renovation of the Saarinen building is spectacular, and the building (probably) never looked better. The additions include two separate hotel room wings (one named after Eero Saarinen and the other named after Howard Hughes) that are connected through the solid tubes, as well as an underground conference center located behind the terminal. The original Saarinen building now serves mainly as a lobby, with hotel check-in areas, a few places to eat and shop, an exhibit area and an awful lot of glorious empty space.
On top of the hotel addition, an infinity pool, complete with its own TWA logo, overlooks the planes and runways between Terminals 5 and 6. Perfect for people who always dreamed of swimming and watching planes taxi at the same time.
I chose a Deluxe King room with a runway view, and when I checked in, my room was somehow no longer available. The hotel was, after all, still in its soft opening phase and no one working behind the desk really seemed to understand yet how things actually worked. Luckily all was not lost and the third person who helped me was able to put me into a similar, slightly cheaper room with a similar view. Once inside, the first thing you notice is how small the room really is, but also how very well detailed and branded things are. As an architect who likes to travel (I think most do), and especially one who was once quoted as calling it one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, the entire hotel seems almost custom made for me (and people like me, I guess). I am already thinking of reasons to take JetBlue again so I can have a built in excuse of staying here again and again and again.
Although its been 20 years since anyone left from the TWA Flight Center on a plane, you can now at least board one. An old, restored Lockheed Constellation plane sits out back, in full view of the terminal, on an open concrete plaza with night lights that make it look like you’re looking at an active runway. You can walk over anytime, up the (not especially stable) stairs and board the plane, which is now open as a bar. There, you can sit in historic, restored seats, look out the window, enjoy your drink and realize that those old Lockheed Constellation seats really weren’t all that comfortable to begin with. Next time, just stay on one of the couches.
The old departure and arrival boards were also restored in all of their 1960s flip board glory, although the TWA Hotel took it to the next level. None of the listings are actually accurate, and many of the listed airlines (like TWA, Pan Am, Eastern and Braniff) haven’t existed for decades. A fun touch at a hotel that seems happily lost in its own time.
Connecting the TWA Hotel lobby, the hotel room wings and JetBlue Terminal 5 are two large concrete tubes that roughly mimic the inside of that Lockheed Constellation parked out back. The tubes, which have no windows and are exceptionally trippy to walk through, once connected directly to satellite terminals and planes, back before airport security was a thing.
Staying overnight at the TWA Hotel means that, especially late at night, you have the whole terminal to yourself. During the day, hotel guests and curious flight crew members wander about, and, especially if you go on weekends, you’re likely to see entire visiting families dressed up like they’re in the 1960s or possibly that guy dressed up like a pilot dancing around the terminal, who may be a ghost for all I know. But later at night, the crowds lessen, the place becomes quieter and the ghosts all go home, leaving all of this to you.
