Posted on 07/02/2019 5:50:07 AM PDT by C19fan
Within the first couple of weeks there were half a dozen marriage proposals. Guys dropping to their knees in the Sunken Lounge and on the cantilevered catwalk — popping the question on the Solari split-flap departure board or in “Connie,” the 1958 TWA Lockheed Constellation Starliner parked outside on the roof of a new underground conference center, the plane’s fuselage converted into a 60’s-era cocktail lounge.
The TWA Hotel now occupies Eero Saarinen’s stupendously restored 1962 TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, midcentury modernism’s great tribute to sex, adventure and the golden age of air travel. It is attracting the predictable mix of nostalgic baby boomers, design-conscious hipsters and stylish Europeans.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Opened a year after Saarinen died, at 51, the terminal was also obsolete from day one.
DOH!!! I flew out of the TWA terminal. Very nice but was designed for a time when flying was an exclusive way to travel. Saarinen showed much more foresight when he designed the Dulles Airport building. He designed it so it could be expanded without losing the integrity of the design.
During the 80s I commuted to Cairo ...Always flew TWA and remember JFK terminal well.
One of the great buildings. Glad they saved it.
Here’s the hotel site.
Really nice. Rooms 200 bucks.
https://www.twahotel.com/hotel/hotel
The Airport Hilton in St. Louis is a TWA shrine.
Pictures of happy movie stars climbing into TWA airplanes abound.
Every room has two or three...
The Dulles airport was a disaster from the start from an industrial engineering standpoint. You essentially went through the boarding process twice, once to get on the mobile lounge thing, once to transfer from the mobile lounge thing to your airplane. Stupendously inefficient.
https://www.cardcow.com/images/set293/card00755_fr.jpg
Dulles ultimately built real gates with the midfield terminal with jetways to make the place usable and get rid of the mobile lounges.
Back in the old day folks used to wear their best Sunday school clothes whenever they flew.
That's the barely visited Int'l Airport in Newfoundland, Canada.
It's were TONS of airplanes suddenly had to go when during 9-11 all airplanes from Europe were told to land ASAP.
The place is a living TIME CAPSULE --eery.
There was never any need to update it cuz no one ever complained. Cuz NO ONE goes there.
It's MORE retro than retro cuz it never became anything else.
Behold:
GANDER:
PARADISE for hisotrians and complainey old cranks.
The days of the Jet Setters.
Interesting.
OH CRAP..!
I just read they are slated to FINALLY re-do the whole airport..!
Now *I* am one of the cranks, oh sh*t..!
They should leave it as the time capsule that it is. There is a certain odd charm to it.
Dang, I even like the yuge, boxy security camera up in the right corner.
Dayum, good times.
When surveillance was HONEST.
Remember that?
Back in the old day folks used to wear their best Sunday school clothes whenever they flew.
*************
That was once true when people went to lots of places or attended special occasions.
Want to get noticed these days? Just wear some nice, clean clothes. America has taken the ‘dress down’ thing to extremes. We look like ragamuffins compared to how people dressed a few decades ago.
Eventually some trendsetters in the entertainment world will adopt more formal styles and the masses will follow their lead like they always do.
That would be a GREAT location from some movies or TV shows.
Back in the day, I used to fly through the TWA terminal. You could go from TWA domestic to international without ever being forced into the rest of the airport. Couldn’t be beat.
Oh, HELL yeah..!
Hey look in the center of the top photo in post 8:
A radial array bank of standing PAY PHONES..!
Wow, haven't seen that in forever..!
Maybe still working..??!?
“John F. Kennedy International Airport, midcentury modernism’s great tribute to sex, adventure and the golden age of air travel.”
Sex? WTH
I had an old friend, now passed away, who was one of the top photographers for TWA in the 50s and after. He was based at their corporate headquarters in the 50s and early 60s and then in Kansas City at the main office.
A lot of their famous advertising photos he created from that era. His collection of photographic and other art from that era was great.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
