twa flight center

The typical design and primary function of US airport buildings prior to the 1950s

They were low, shed-like, and functional; considered utilitarian structures built simply to shelter passengers from the elements

The shifting consumer perspective and marketing strategies that changed air terminal architecture in the 1950s

Passengers began viewing air travel as luxurious and sophisticated; airlines marketed a full experience starting long before boarding

The founding year of TWA and its primary prominent client during its first decade of operation

Formed in 1930; its most prominent client was the United States Postal Service

The eccentric aviator who led TWA post-WWII, and the specific route that kicked off its luxury rebranding

Howard Hughes; acquired a New York to Paris passenger route

The single airline that held a monopoly on international passenger services before TWA's expansion

Pan American Airways (Pan Am)

The postwar cultural concept used by Pan Am and TWA to market air travel to a broader clientele

The postwar "American Dream" (stressing comfort, safety, and convenience)

The dramatic statistical surge in annual air passengers between 1945 and 1950

Surged from six million to seventeen million passengers (almost tripling business in five years)

TWA's specific global market share of all international flights during its early postwar peak

25 percent

The historic 1959 global transportation tipping point that coincided with the TWA terminal commission

For the first time, a majority of Americans traveling overseas went by plane rather than boat

The technological origin of the phrase "Jet Age"

Named after the new, faster, and more efficient engines that increasingly powered passenger planes

The four specific modern travel amenities introduced inside Saarinen's TWA terminal design

Exclusive lounges, a choice of restaurants, automated baggage return, and covered jetways

Three other major American corporate giants that hired Saarinen to design their campuses and headquarters

Bell (the largest telecom company at the time), General Motors, and John Deere

The year TWA officially went out of business and the year the restored terminal reopened as a hotel complex

Went out of business in 2001; reopened as a hotel complex attached to JFK's Terminal 5 in 2019

Eero Saarinen's birth year, birth country, and the unique architectural complex where he was born

Born 1910 in Finland; born in Hvitträsk, an architectural complex designed as an art colony

The three major architects who designed the Hvitträsk complex

Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren, and Eero's father, Eliel Saarinen

The architectural style of Hvitträsk and its core visual/material components

Romantic nationalist style; featured traditional building materials and historical references to prehistoric, Viking, and medieval Scandinavian forms

Eliel Saarinen's major 1919 building project that blended romantic nationalism with modern technology

The central train station in Helsinki

Eero's age when his family immigrated to the US, and the Michigan institution his father directed

Age 13; immigrated to Michigan where Eliel directed the Cranbrook Academy of Art

The core multi-disciplinary curriculum taught at the Cranbrook Academy of Art

Architecture and applied arts (including furniture, industrial design, and textiles)

The two locations where Eero Saarinen received his primary formal architectural education

Paris and Yale University (graduating in 1934 before traveling for nearly two years)

The 1948 milestone project that brought Eero national recognition, and its famous competitive twist

His design for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis, Missouri; he famously beat out his own father's submission

The physical height, structural shape, and exterior cladding material of the St. Louis Gateway Arch

A 630-foot-tall catenary arch sheathed in panels of stainless steel

The three core principles that defined Eero Saarinen's lifelong architectural practice

A dedication to modern materials used innovatively, an embrace of organic lines/shapes, and the use of expressive form to communicate

Three other noteworthy structural designs completed by Eero Saarinen outside of the TWA terminal

Washington Dulles International Airport, the Kresge Auditorium at MIT, and two overseas American embassies

The name and design year of Saarinen's famous minimalist pedestal chair featured in the text

The "Tulip" chair, designed in 1956 (manufactured c. 1970)

Eero Saarinen's age at death and the completion status of the TWA terminal when he passed

Died in 1961 at age 51; the TWA terminal was completed the following year (1962)

The original name of the airport housing the TWA terminal and the year/reason it was renamed

Idlewild Airport (located in Queens, NY); renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963 to honor the recently assassinated president

The vivid organic metaphor the TWA terminal resembles when viewed from the street

A giant white bird crouching to take off, with wings outstretched

The architectural feature that descends directly from the terminal's two massive overhanging wing arches

Glass curtain walls

The specific interior furnishings and fixtures constructed with curved edges to mirror the shell facade

The sofas, the information desk, and the huge, bulbous flight status monitor

The structural view framed by the floor-to-ceiling windows at the rear of the terminal

A panoramic view of the runway, allowing passengers to watch planes taking off and landing

The structural layout, specific color, and precise angle of the terminal's two original passenger hallways

Two symmetric hallways carpeted in "TWA red" extending off the main space at 45-degree angles

The total number of original departure gates serviced by the terminal's symmetric hallways

17 original departure gates

The corporate mandate given to Saarinen by TWA President Ralph Damon regarding the building's impact

Requested "a building that starts your flight with your first glimpse of it" and communicates "the spirit of flight, inside and out."

The shared architectural philosophy held by both Eliel and Eero Saarinen regarding design blueprints

Materials affect a building's expressive character; the textures and inherent qualities of materials must guide the design from the start

The contrast between the building materials chosen by Eliel versus those chosen by Eero

Eliel: local Finnish stone and timber (national pride).

Eero: machine age modernism materials (stainless steel, concrete, metal mesh).

The exact structural composition and materials used to sculpt the TWA terminal's winglike curves

Concrete poured over a flexible metal mesh

The physical dimensions and structural segments of the terminal's lightweight shell roof

Made of four wedge-shaped segments that are only seven inches thick in certain places

The innovative architectural feature Saarinen inserted where the four roof wedges meet, and its visual effect

Glass skylights (instead of solid weight-bearing ribs); enhanced the building's upward momentum and airiness

The psychological reason Saarinen preferred organic forms over rigid steel and glass architecture

He believed organic forms found in nature were more welcoming, visually interesting, and psychologically nurturing to users

The legendary modernist architect whose rigid skyscraper style Saarinen consciously rejected

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The late-1950s critique of "International Modernist" skyscrapers and the definition of architectural "program"

Critiqued as "uniform, boxlike buildings with transparent curtain walls… regardless of time, place or program"; Program means a building's function

Saarinen's famous quote defining the emotional duty of unified indoor/outdoor architecture

"Architecture must make a strong emotional impact… wherever you are, inside or outside, the building sings with the same message."

The name of the artist and creation date of the TWA "Paris" advertising poster found in the text captions

David Klein; 1964

The approximate calendar year assigned to the archival photo of the unrestored terminal interior

c. 2015

The term coined in the text for the new wave of iconic designers following Saarinen's "star" terminal blueprint

"Starchitects"

The descriptive phrase used to define the visual structure of the terminal's two intertwining indoor staircases

Curving forms that "swoop and intertwine"

The phrase used to describe the unified, thin-shell structural integration of the terminal's interior and exterior

A thin, sculpted shell

The name of the specific airport terminal that one of the preserved "flight tubes" connects to today

JFK's Terminal 5

The specific family competitive twist during the 1948 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial national competition

Eero's design famously beat out his own father's submission

The exact phrase describing the visual look of the terminal's massive supports as they anchor to the ground

They resemble "the legs in a bird of prey's ready stance"

The two precise colors specified as the terminal's officially restored color scheme

Eggshell white and TWA red

The technological description explaining the naming origin of the "jet age"

Named after the "new, faster, and more efficient engines" that increasingly powered passenger planes

The visual quality produced specifically by the stainless-steel cladding on the St. Louis Gateway Arch

A "sleek, dynamic surface"