Grand Central of the Jet Age (TWA Terminal/Hotel nickname)

The TWA Flight Center at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (opened as the “New York International Airport” and called “Idlewild Airport,” but renamed after Kennedy’s 1963 assassination) was designed with a distinctive winged-bird shape by architect Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) and opened in 1962. New York-based architect and author Robert A. M. Stern was quoted in the New York (NY) Times, on November 6, 1994, for saying that the TWA terminal was the “Grand Central of the jet age.” New York City’s Grand Central Terminal is the famous commuter rail terminal that opened in 1913 (before the age of air travel).
 
The TWA terminal was declared a New York City Landmark in 1994 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. TWA (Trans World Airlines) declared bankruptcy in 2001, ending flights at the terminal. In May 2019, the terminal reopened as the TWA Hotel.
 
       
Wikipedia: TWA Flight Center
The TWA Flight Center, also known as the Trans World Flight Center, is an airport terminal at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. The terminal, which opened in 1962, was designed for Trans World Airlines by Eero Saarinen.
 
The original design featured a prominent wing-shaped thin shell roof over the head house, or main terminal; unusual tube-shaped red-carpeted departure-arrival corridors; and tall windows enabling expansive views of departing and arriving jets. The design straddles the Futurist, Neo-futurist, Googie and Fantastic architectural styles.
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Both the interior and the exterior were declared a New York City Landmark in 1994. In 2005, the terminal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Noted architect Robert A. M. Stern has called the TWA Flight Center the “Grand Central of the jet age”. The pragmatic new encircling terminal has been called “hyper-efficient” and a “monument to human throughput”.
     
6 November 1994, New York (NY) Times, “Architecture View; Stay of Execution for a Dazzling Airline Terminal” by Herbert Muschamp, pg. H31, col. 1:
PLANES SHOULD STREAK IN drill formation to salute the New York City Council for voting late last month to uphold the landmark designation of the T.W.A. terminal at Kennedy Airport. And T.W.A. also deserves an aerial loop-the-loop. While the airline contested the designation of parts of Eero Saarinen’s 1962 building, described by Robert A. M. Stern as the “Grand Central of the jet age,” it had good reason for doing so.
       
ABC News 
Inside the TWA Flight Center at Open House New York
By Lawrence Lai October 21, 2011
Recently, Open House New York gave architecture and aviation fans a thrill when they hosted an inside look at the landmark TWA Flight Center in New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
 
Designed by famed architect and industrial designer Eero Saarinen and completed in 1962, a year after his death, its distinctive curves and flight wings hark back to a more glamorous era of flight. Noted architect Robert A.M. Stern has called the terminal the “Grand Central of the jet age.”
 
Twitter
Open House New York
@ohny
TWA Flight Center:  “The Grand Central of the Jet Age” - http://sabrinanagel.com/twa-flight-center-the-grand-central-of-the-jet-age/
3:47 PM · Nov 8, 2011·Twitter for Websites
 
Twitter
Archtober
@Archtober
Today’s Building of the Day is the TWA Flight Center, known as the the “Grand Central of the Jet Age” http://ow.ly/ecoro
8:03 AM · Oct 4, 2012·Hootsuite
   
CityLab
JFK’s Most Famous Terminal May Soon Be Transformed Into a Flashy Hotel
MARK BYRNES SEP 20, 2013
The Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center is finally, maybe, getting a second life.
The famous TWA Flight Center at New York’s JFK airport was once the ultimate symbol of the jet age. The Eero Saarinen-designed building opened in 1962, and was an instant, award-winning architectural icon. Robert A.M. Stern went as far as to call it the “Grand Central of the jet age.”
 
Atlas Obscura   
June 5, 2019
TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport
This futuristic airport terminal was built in the 1960s and abandoned for years before opening as a hotel.
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The abandoned Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen and built in 1962 at JFK Airport (then Idlewild Airport), was designed to be the next big thing in the elegance of air travel. Known as the “Grand Central of the Jet Age,” the historic terminal was futuristic and cutting edge, featuring an elevated footbridge, old clocks hung from the ceiling, large windows, and a classy collection of red velvet lounge chairs.
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By 2015—nearly 14 years after its closure—the TWA terminal finally found a new purpose. In 2019, the original head house opened as an airport hotel, consisting of 505 new guest rooms while maintaining many of the airport’s original icons, including the Lisbon Lounge and the Paris Café.
   
Curbed—New York
Can you answer these NYC questions from Curbed x Archtober’s trivia night?
How much do you know about NYC architecture, design, and the built environment? Test your mettle with these trivia questions!
By Amy Plitt@plitter Updated Oct 11, 2019, 4:42pm EDT
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3. This Queens building, described by Robert A.M. Stern as the “Grand Central of the jet age,” recently reopened to the public after nearly 20 years during which it was rarely used. Name that building, and for an extra brownie point, name its architect.
ANSWER: TWA Terminal (or TWA Hotel), Eero Saarinen