Once a year (at least for the last few years), New Yorkers are welcomed to journey back to the jet age with a visit to Eero Saarinen's iconic TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport during Open House New York. It offers a rare glimpse inside the 1962 architectural landmark, and an opportunity for nostalgia to reign free, even for those who never actually flew through the terminal. Englishman Patrick Goff reached out after seeing our story from this year's OHNY weekend to share photos from his first visit to the terminal in 1976, which capture the terminal as a bustling, 14-year-old hub. Revel it it now, before the place is redevelopedmaybe even into a Trump hotel.
The first photo (at the top of the post) looks through the window that now faces the JetBlue terminal. A Command Airways de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft along with a TWA Boeing 707 and Boeing 747 sitting on the tarmac.
↑ This is the view from what is now a five-story parking structure, and the tail of a Lockheed L-1011 is clearly visible at left.
↑ + ↓ Inside the terminal, the fashions are decidedly post-"Mad Men." Goff has a made a career in hotel design, so it's interesting that this terminal he was so struck by 40 years ago will be redeveloped as a hotel.
↑ And a bonus shot of the British Airways terminal, which is now Terminal 7.
—Evan Bindelglass is a local freelance journalist, photographer, cinephile, and foodie. You can e-mail him, follow him on Twitter @evabin, or check out his personal blog.
· Patrick Goff [official]
· Touring Saarinen's Iconic TWA Terminal Before Redevelopment [Curbed]
· All TWA Terminal coverage [Curbed]
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