Old Saarinen Terminal 5 opening soon
BackThe Trans World Airlines terminal at Kennedy International Airport — that abandoned embodiment of the Come Fly With Me era of jet-setting — would reopen this year under a plan advanced on Thursday by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The authoritys board approved a $19 million project to repair the 46-year-old terminal so that travelers can pass through it on their way to the enormous new JetBlue Airways terminal that wraps around the T.W.A. building in a crescent shape. Both buildings are known as Terminal 5. The hope is to open them simultaneously this fall, said William R. DeCota, the aviation director of the Port Authority. If not, he said, the T.W.A. building — an official landmark designed by architect Eero Saarinen — would reopen soon after. Except for a brief stint as an exhibition gallery in 2004, the Saarinen terminal has been closed since T.W.A. ended operations in October 2001. The main terminal building, called the head house, and two tubular corridors for departures and arrivals have been preserved. Those corridors will connect the Saarinen and JetBlue terminals. When Terminal 5 launches in fall, JetBlue says on its T508.com Web site, customers will have the option of checking in at a JetBlue kiosk in the Saarinen building and taking in this landmarked architectural wonders exquisite modernist design on their way to our new terminal. The airline has adopted the gull-winged profile of the T.W.A. building for its Terminal 5 logo. Before the terminal reopens, asbestos must be removed, deteriorating concrete and tiles must be repaired, sections of the roof must be replaced and new doors must be installed, among other measures, Mr. DeCota said. The Port Authority is taking on the work because there were no responses to a request in 2006 for redevelopment proposals, he said. When the building is in better shape, he said, he expected more interest from operators who might use parts of it for an airline lounge, a restaurant, office space, a museum, a hotel or a spa. Christine A. Ferer, a member of the authoritys board of commissioners, said the restoration was thrilling but wondered aloud at a subcommittee meeting on Thursday whether JetBlue was paying an appropriate amount for the use of the Saarinen landmark as its front door. Were really giving them this beautiful piece of art, this historic building as an entrance to their facility, she said. Mr. DeCota said that JetBlue was not specifically underwriting renovation of the historic building, but that its rent to the Port Authority was helping to support this facility as part of the overall Terminal 5 development project. One element of the Saarinen building will almost certainly not be salvaged: the trumpet-shaped flight departure lounge that used to sit at the end of one of the tubular corridors. Last year, at a cost of about $800,000, it was cut apart from the rest of the structure and moved about 1,500 feet to get it out of the way of construction crews while preservationists, airport officials and airline executives tried to figure out if it could be reused. Though Mr. DeCota declined to say flatly on Thursday that nothing could be done with the trumpet structure, he hinted strongly that the money needed to renovate it — which he put at more than $10 million — would be better spent on the Saarinen head house. The Municipal Art Society, a civic organization that belongs to the redevelopment advisory committee involved with the Saarinen building, believes that any decision to destroy the trumpet structure would be premature, fiscally irresponsible and historically inappropriate, said Frank E. Sanchis III, the societys senior vice president. Mr. Sanchis said that the fate of the trumpet was discussed without consulting the redevelopment committee and that the cost estimates were inflated. On Thursday, the art group appealed to the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in Washington to intervene.
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Uploaded: September 20th, 2008 @ 11:39 pm
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