A wonderful resurrection

This is wonderful. When I was a child, we lived overseas. Every couple of years we would return to the states for a month or so of family leave, our family living in the midwest. Given that, our domestic connecting flights were most often TWA.

We'd fly in to JFK from South America, or Africa or Europe and then head over to the TWA terminal.

Now as a child, everything is new and novel, especially if you are always moving around the world. Wonder at differences is your steady state. But even then, the TWA terminal stood out. The long sweeping lines, the spareness, the sense of space and cleansing light, its existentially artistic presence. It felt a little as if you were on the set of the Jetsons. The future had arrived.

Those days are long gone. TWA is long gone. Glamour in flying is gone. However, even though it is easy to fall into the habit of thinking of flying as simply an airborne bus, the miracle of flight does still catch my attention and breath every now and then.

But apparently the TWA terminal was not bulldozed but has been dormant all these years and is now returning to life as a hotel. From The TWA Hotel Turns an Abandoned Airport Terminal Into a Midcentury Dream by Jen Woo.

Meet JFK's first on-airport hotel—complete with midcentury modern guest rooms, a 10,000-square-foot rooftop deck with pool, and a Jean-Georges restaurant.

An abandoned airport terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport has been reborn as the TWA Hotel, a stylish stay channeling the jet age. While the once-groundbreaking Trans World Airlines ceased operations in 2001, and the terminal closed in October of that year, the luxe hotel pays homage to the original architecture of the 1962 building designed by architect Eero Saarinen.

The hotel, which begins accepting reservations on February 14, has been reimagined by New York–based design firms Lubrano Ciavarra, INC., Beyer Blinder Belle, and Stonehill Taylor.

The project calls to mind the romance of flying when the transportation method was still a novelty. Some original waiting area seating remains in the lobby and the business and events center.

Vintage tunes drift through the hotel in a curated soundtrack featuring Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, The 5th Dimension, Dusty Springfield, Rosemary Clooney, and Dean Marin. Airline beverage carts with snacks and carbonated sips are speckled throughout the grounds, while a champagne fridge filled with Moet & Chandon, TAB, and miniature bottles sits at the ready in the lobby for a boozy fix.

To access the guest rooms, patrons enter through space-age flight tubes—which you may remember from the film Catch Me If You Can. Clean lines meet a touch of glam in the rooms, which feature leather upholstery; a pop of primary color; Hollywood-style vanities; and custom walnut, brass, and glass details. Guests can make free unlimited local and international calls from a rewired vintage rotary phone, while taking in views of the runway.

That's wonderful; I hope they succeed.

Some photos of that glorious vision of the future from the late 1950s.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.