That was well before deregulation of the airlines in the 1960s and ’70s lowered ticket costs and led to an air-travel explosion, before the advent of 500-seat passenger jets, Laptop Lanes, multimillion-dollar security systems, terminal shopping malls-and before the term “air-rage” entered the vernacular. As flying has shifted from elite travel to mass transit, JFK has been bursting at the seams, as it attempts to funnel 2001 passenger loads through buildings constructed well before the birth of the jet age.
JFK’s new international terminal, set to open at the end of May, is the latest step in a $9 billion airport overhaul project, aimed at bringing JFK into the 21st century. The gleaming $1.4 billion terminal, conceived by the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), has a swooping steel roof in a design reminiscent of an airplane wing, and an immense glass facades on nearly every vertical side. Flooded with natural light, the glass facade allows the 5 million or so travelers who move through the building every year to view the entire terminal from the central departure hall, enabling them to keep an eye on gates and plane arrivals from the moment they step inside. “It gives the structure transparency, so that people never feel disoriented as they move through building,” says SOM’s Peter Ruggiero. “It’s designed to take the stress out of traveling.”
That might be a tall order for any building-but the train platform located inside the terminal building is at least a first step. Soon, a $1.5 billion light-rail system called AirTrain will whisk travelers around the loop that links the various terminals at JFK. When construction is fully complete in 2003, the train will take passengers to Jamaica, Queens, where they will be able to connect with New York City subway lines, bus lines and the Long Island Rail Road.
Building planners also point to the terminal’s extensive art collection as a “stress reducing” element of the design. Development general manager David Sigman pitches the collection as “one of the largest displays of privately-funded art in New York City.” It includes the mobile “Flight” by Alexander Calder and a ceramic mural copied from one created by Arshile Gorky for the old Newark airport. The collection also features three site-specific works by New York artists, commissioned during the redesign. One of the pieces, a 300-foot mural on New York street life, has already caused a classic New York City decency flap. The mural features a 12-inch picture of Jesus on the cross, naked. After construction workers at the airport complained to Catholic organizations, the artist, Deborah Masters, agreed to add a loin cloth.
The building is also breaking new ground as the first major American airport terminal financed and run by a public-private partnership. The management group, called JFK International Air Terminal (JFK IAT), includes the architects, a real estate developer, an airport management firm and investment bankers. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has granted the consortium a 25-year lease on the property where the terminal is built.
The privatization aspect means the terminal has to generate income, and to resolve that issue, the structure is designed to bombard captive travelers with shopping options. Beneath the top-level departure hall where passengers go through the check-in process is a middle-level hall devoted to shopping and dining. Architect Marilyn Taylor of SOM says the 100,000 square foot retail hallway, which all passengers will have to walk through to reach airport gates at each end, will have the “attitude of a New York City street,” with mock storefronts, street-level pricing and four indoor blocks of upscale shopping for anything from smoked salmon at Dean & Deluca to DKNY underwear.
Since the terminal will handle only international travelers, most will have plenty of time to browse during the two hours they’re expected to wait for flight departures. In addition to leasing retail and restaurant space, the airport will also charge airlines a per-passenger fee for use of the facility. The developers say they believe that if the business model is successful, it could launch a national trend towards airport privatization.
Although the terminal opened with a “soft launch” in early May, the experiment won’t be fully underway until the ribbon cutting on May 24, when the first planes begin taxiing up to the gates-and the first credit cards are swiped through the shopping hall registers.
