By Devin Gannon, Wed, May 15, 2019 Looking down on the terminal from the London Club; Photo courtesy of TWA Hotel/David Mitchell
The much-anticipated rebirth of Eero Saarinen’s historic TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport is complete. The TWA Hotel officially opened on Wednesday, more than two years after the project broke ground in Queens and over 18 years since the iconic 1962 terminal shuttered. The project was developed by MCR and MORSE Development and designed by architecture firm LUBRANO CIAVARRA. Beyer Blinder Belle Architects handled the restoration of the original Flight Center to prepare for the hotel. The two six-story crescent-shaped buildings contain 512 rooms, a rooftop infinity pool and observation deck, event space, food hall, luxury fitness center, and retro cocktail bar.
Take the tour
By Michelle Cohen, Wed, September 26, 2018 Photo: Lapeg Photo
Symbolic of the future-happy post-war era, Bell Labs, the research and development center for telecom giant AT&T, was one of Finnish architect and industrial designer Eero Saarinen’s architectural masterpieces, though his iconic TWA Flight Center may be better known. The two-million-square-foot modernist cube, built in 1962–the architect passed away in 1961 before it was completed—made a statement in the quiet suburban scenery. Within, scientists made famous discoveries and won Nobel Prizes. As the centuries changed, 2007 saw the end of era when Bell Labs shuttered. After American ambitions shifted from science to snacking, a seasoned culinary squad was tapped by RBC Hospitality Group, Eater reports, to bring the winning formula of sushi, pizza, sandwiches, pastries and grain bowls to the historic building in the ‘burbs.
So, what’s on the menu?
By Dana Schulz, Wed, August 8, 2018 The Starstream Ballroom, via MCR
Getting married next spring? Or maybe you’re planning a large conference? Either way, if mid-century-modern is your thing, then the news that the TWA Hotel is now booking events for the spring of 2019 and beyond is sure to be exciting. Ahead of reservations for guestrooms opening in December, we now have a first look at the 50,000 square feet of event space, including two ballrooms, a pre-function space complete with Saarinen-designed Knoll furniture like tulip tables and womb chairs, and six high-tech skyboxes.
Get a look at all the spaces
By Michelle Cohen, Fri, December 15, 2017 Image courtesy of MCR and Morse Development; Photo: Max Touhey.
MCR and Morse Development announced this week the topping out of the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport less than a year after breaking ground on the project. Designed by celebrated 20th-century architect Eero Saarinen in 1962, The hotel is set to reopen in early 2019, when it will become JFK’s only on-airport hotel. Saarinen’s iconic TWA Flight Center terminal building will serve as the hotel’s lobby; at 200,000 square feet, it is thought to be the world’s largest hotel lobby. Hotel guests and passengers will be able to access the hotel through the famous Saarinen passenger tubes that connect directly to JFK’s Terminal 5 as well as through via the AirTrain system.
Find out more about the rebirth of this mid-century modern icon
By Devin Gannon, Fri, September 29, 2017 Rendering of TWA Hotel via MCR
MCR Development officially launched the mid-century modern TWA Lounge on the 86th floor of One World Trade Center on Thursday and provided a deeper look into plans to convert Eero Saarinen’s historic TWA flight center at JFK Airport into a hotel, event space, and dining destination (there will even be a bar in a vintage aircraft parked outside). As part of a public-private partnership between MCR and the Port Authority, the project will rehabilitate the landmarked Queens flight center by restoring the majority of its 1960s Jet Age features and adding a crescent-shaped hotel with 505 rooms flanking the original building on each side. According to MCR’s CEO Tyler Morse, construction of the hotel is on schedule; it will go vertical on Monday, top out in December, and have its curtainwall applied by January. If everything remains on schedule, the project is expected to open in 18 months.
More details and photos this way
By Diane Pham, Wed, March 8, 2017 The excitement was palpable yesterday evening as New Yorkers packed into the SVA Theatre for a special presentation on one of the city’s most important rehabilitation projects: the redevelopment of Eero Saarinen’s iconic TWA flight center into a hotel. Taking the stage were the development and architecture teams who divulged a slew of new details regarding the design, the hotel’s offer, and even the pricing of the rooms.
more details from the night’s event here
By Dana Schulz, Fri, December 16, 2016 The shovels were out at JFK’s TWA Flight Terminal yesterday, as MCR Development and JetBlue broke ground on their project to turn Eero Saarinen‘s mid-century modern masterpiece into the high-end, 505-room TWA Hotel. According to a press release, Governor Cuomo attended the festivities, noting that the conversion “will preserve this iconic landmark while cementing JFK’s status as a crown jewel of aviation.” The news also came with two renderings that show the two, six-story, crescent shaped hotel buildings that will rise on either side of the existing structure.
Read more
By Dana Schulz, Tue, December 6, 2016 After sitting vacant at JFK Airport for 14 years as a vestige of jet-age architecture, Eero Saarinen‘s iconic 1962 TWA Flight Terminal received a new life in the summer of 2015 when it was announced that the neo-futurist structure would be reborn as a high-end hotel. MCR Development teamed up with JetBlue and the Port Authority to develop a “505-room LEED-certified hotel with restaurants, 40,000 square feet of meeting space and a 10,000-square-foot observation deck,” as 6sqft previously described. Initial reports referred to the project as the “TWA Flight Center Hotel,” but the Times now confirms that it’ll simply be the “TWA Hotel.” And with construction four months in, Curbed noticed that signage for the hotel has gone up, preserving the airline’s logo and font.
See the sign ahead
By Cait Etherington, Tue, September 6, 2016 Image courtesy of SOM by James Ewing
Historically, college dorms have been characterized by anything but great architecture. While many older institutions rent out rooms (“cells” may be a more apt description) in neo-gothic structures, newer institutions tend to house students in some of the world’s least inspiring modernist buildings (for an example, head over to the I.M. Pei towers that dominate NYU’s University Village). More recently, however, at least some colleges and universities have begun to acknowledge that where students live may have an impact on their performance. Financially savvy institutions have also started to link student housing options to student retention rates.
As a result, on many campuses, drab gray concrete structures with prison-size windows are finally giving way to light, glass and wood and to an entirely new range of built-in amenities. This means that whether or not all students know it, a growing number of them are now living in buildings on the cutting edge of contemporary design.
Ahead, we highlight some of the best and most innovative in the new york area
By Michelle Cohen, Wed, July 13, 2016 The Wright auction house is gearing up for the July 26 auction of kitchen and dining room items from the iconic Four Seasons restaurant. As 6sqft previously reported, news that the restaurant would decamp from the building surfaced last summer, when Seagram Building owner Aby Rosen did not renew the lease for what has been seen as the quintessential Midtown “power lunch” spot for the last decades of the 20th century since it opened in 1959. The restaurant’s interiors feature custom designs by Pritzker Prize-winner Philip Johnson and furniture, tableware and other modernist treasures by the likes of by Seagram Building designer Mies Van der Rohe, Hans J. Wegner and others and custom-made Knoll furniture.
With an emotional forward by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, the auction catalog offers a preview of items up for auction with estimates. Included will be banquettes designed for the space by Philip Johnson Associates, Eero Saarinen Tulip stools, chairs and tables from the bar of the Grill Room, pans, flatware and dishes created for the restaurant by Ada Louise and L. Garth Huxtable and more.
Take a look at the items in the Four Seasons auction
