Welcome to a new Curbed feature, Curbed Inside. Taking a page from our gastronomically inclined friends, Curbed Inside visits the interior of a space with an eye towards revealing the design and architecture. If you've got a project you'd like Curbed to consider for shooting, drop us a line.
Anyone who's flown JetBlue out of JFK's Terminal 6 lately is aware, the airline desperately needs more space. This was evident to JetBlue way back in 2003, when the carrier struck a 30-year lease with the Port Authority to build a new Terminal 5 ("T5," in the parlance), located directly behind architect Eero Saarinen's iconic TWA Terminal. Construction on the project, architected by Gensler and Associates and slated to open to the public in late 2008, has come far enough that a project insider slipped us a bunch of recent photographs. Above, a view of the main ticketing hall.
View of the marketplace from the East concourse.
Interior of the East concourse.
The marketplace, which one assumes is codeword for "food court."
View of the North concourse as seen from plane-side.
Dropoff area for departures.
Two more views of the dropoff area. The suspended tubes at the far left and right, respectively, of the photos are the connectors to Saarinen's TWA Terminal. As a refresher, here's an aerial of the whole project:
If the new terminal design looks less than overwhelming—which, let's be honest, it does—recall that preservationists insisted on a low-height design so as not to overpower Saarinen's terminal. More renderings of the interiors, if you're so inclined.
And what of the treasured TWA space? We haven't heard much about its fate since the Port Authority issued RFPs on the project almost a year ago. Word at the time was that architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle would oversee a renovation back to the terminal's 1962 look, but the usage of the space remains an open question. If anyone's heard rumor about what's to come, let us know.
As a footnote, our correspondent emails, "I want to see people's reactions to the terminal. They are also building a purely nuts and bolts parking garage for 1200 cars next to the terminal as well. Nothing to really speak of, but I guess it goes along with the 'Queens crap'?"
· JFK's T5: JetBlue's Blockbuster Interior Revealed [Curbed]
· Saarinen Terminal Update: Blame the Port Authority [Curbed]
· JFK's New Terminal 5 Tops Out [PRNewswire]
· High Five for T5 [JetBlue]
· Construction Begins on New JFK Terminal [Gensler.com]