TWA Flight Center Hotel Is Finally Becoming A Reality

After years of sitting vacant, the iconic TWA terminal at JFK Airport will become a hotel. The developer was revealed in July, and Crain's reports that the Port Authority will make it officially official at its board meeting next week. Details are still being hammered out, but preliminary plans indicate that the hotel, to be named the TWA Flight Center Hotel, will have 505 hotel rooms, 40,000 square feet of meeting space, six to eight dining establishments, and a 10,000-square-foot observation deck. Eero Saarinen's swooping building will serve as the lobby, while the guest rooms will be in a new building that's set back from the historic structure. JetBlue and MCR Development partnered to develop the project, but it's unclear how much they'll pay the Port Authority or who will head up the design team.

[Rendering via MCR Development.]

Governor Cuomo announced a new plan to improve New York's airports (especially LaGuardia) a priority, and building hotels on airport ground is a part of that. Currently, neither airport has one. In a statement provided to Crain's, Joe Sitt, the chairman of the Global Gateway Alliance, an airport advocacy group, said, "We applaud the Port Authority for moving ahead with plans to develop the iconic TWA Flight Center, because it's past time for a smart use for the building and for an on-airport hotel available to millions of JFK passengers."

And because we can never write about the TWA Terminal without providing some architecture porn, here are some photos to ogle:

Click through for dozens more photos:
· Explore the TWA Terminal, a Pristine Time Capsule From 1962 [Curbed]
· JetBlue plan for hotel in dormant JFK terminal cleared for takeoff [Crain's]
· JFK's Iconic Terminal to Become the TWA Flight Center Hotel [Curbed]
· Governor Cuomo Unveils Vision For Transformative Redesign of LaGuardia Airport [official]
· Behold, the First Glimpse of a Revamped LaGuardia Airport [Curbed]
· All TWA Terminal coverage [Curbed]