Idlewild Airport - Warning: Image intensive

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Borrowed from http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16750.

Idlewild was the second airport in NYC (the first was LaGuardia, which to this day retains its early 20th century look). It was designed to be much larger and more modern. The name was changed in 1948 to New York International (but people kept calling it Idlewild) and JFK in 1963 (the name stuck). The airport now has like 7 or 8 terminals and it's a complete mad house.

The photos below are from the airport in 1962. What I find remarkable about this is that in 1962, the airport looked even more modern than it does today. But it is several orders of magnitude less crowded - it is literally peaceful while offering terminals with panoramic views of jets on the tarmac, modern architecture, gardens, etc - in some ways the perfect place for a person with AS.





The three houses of worship (Jewish, Christian, Muslim):



The centerpiece was Terminal 5, the Saarninen-designed 'head house' of TWA. The interior is more modern than most airports today, and with so many fewer people moving through, there was plenty of space to stretch out or hide in a corner. Again, perfect for someone with AS. Also, back then there was no such thing as airport security, you could walk all the way from the street onto the plane before showing a ticket.



Exterior:



Here is the terminal in 1992, after adding security checkpoints, wheelchair ramps, and a many-orders-of-magnitude increase in the flow of passengers:



Conclusion: I understand why Cockney Rebel prefers the 60s. It actually looks sane.

Eero Saarinen is the cat's pajamas. I'd love to wander around it, the pre-ruined version if it, anyways. Did it ever look great back in the sixties.

and those chapels! i didn't even know about those... i'll have to look them up, they look like hovering sci-fi spaceships next to the reflecting pool.

thanks for sharing!

-Luke

I love those pictures. Where did you find them?

The URL where I found the pictures is at the top. I just stumbled on that. There are more pictures at that link.

There is now a giant multi-story parking garage occupying the left foreground of pictures 1 and 3, which would block the view of the TWA terminal. The road itself is an inner and outer portion (closer together than in 1962) and the inner portion is in two levels. The reflecting pool and houses of worship are long gone, I believe the space is occupied by a network of about half a dozen access roads and ramps. If you visit this link you can see what a mess it is now. The concept of being able to park at ground level directly across the street from the terminal and stroll right in makes me envious. It's just a network of highway ramps now.

The TWA terminal itself still stands, but the last few times I checked it was filled with scaffolding inside and dwarfed by the new Terminal 5 behind it, which is about 10 times the size. TWA went out of business after 9/11 and JetBlue now owns the space. To its credit, JetBlue kept the Saarinen head house standing and intends to restore it as closely as possible to its original condition. Unfortunately, there's no practical way to use it as an actual terminal and there will be no panoramic view of jets on the tarmac.