Apologies for the Times-ish post title. I came across an intriguing article about the abandoned Eero Saarinen T.W.A. terminal at Kennedy Airport:
JetBlue’s vice president for redevelopment, Richard J. Smyth, said being the sole tenant of the Saarinen building would not have worked operationally or financially for the airline. "More and more of our customers are checking in at home," he said. "The whole ticketing hall experience is not what it used to be."
It reminded me a little bit of a discussion in Networked Cities last year about re-purposing outdated infrastructure. I believe the topic of that conversation was phone booths that had been converted into wireless access points by Verizon. This seems like a similar design problem:
But something besides two kiosks must fill the 60,000-square-foot main hall, which sits under the vaulted juncture of the four curving concrete lobes that give the building its birdlike silhouette. Something must fill the galleries that once housed the Ambassador Club, the Paris Cafe and the Lisbon Lounge.
"It isn’t just important to save the old Saarinen terminal and its phenomenal architecture," Mr. DeCota said. "It’s important to find a thriving use. How can you continue to make this a centerpiece?"
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