Eero Saarinen: TWA Flight Center

'...a building in which the architecture itself would express the drama and specialness and excitement of travel... a place of movement and transition... The shapes were deliberately chosen in order to emphasize an upward-soaring quality of line. We wanted an uplift.'
Eero Saarinen

In 1962, the Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight Center at New York City's John F. Kennedy (former Idlewild) Airport opened. It was designed by a Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen, son of Eliel Saarinen who was also an architect.
The terminal was designed as a symbol of flight- abstract and does not literally represent a landing eagle as it has often been described. The terminal has been described as a "lyrical expression of the unified sculptural forms that could be created in reinforced concrete before the age of computer-aided design."
But who would ever think that his concept would be a grapefruit? Others think that a bird or a plane as a concept would best fit for an airport design but, according to him, he arrived at the building's evocative form one morning during breakfast, after flipping over a hollowed-out grapefruit rind and pressing down in the middle.

The TWA management approached Saarinen for the following requirements:

• To upgrade Idlewild (now John F. Kennedy) Airport into a modern facility capable of handling the ever-increasing traffic into and out of New York.
• To create a 'centralized plan' for the airport.
• To create a strong corporate identities that would help capture the massive boom in air travel

His primary objectives for the design of the terminal were:

• To create a "distinctive and memorable" signature building for TWA
• To "express the drama and specialness and excitement of travel"

"Saarinen's desire to create a shopwpiece for TWA became important in the context of Idlewild's competitive architectural environment. He intuitively grasped the importance of the paired values and immersion. He took full advantage of the terminal's prominent and dramatic site, centering the arresting terminal on the apex of the airports looping access road. Saarinen gave a vibrant red interior wherein the travelers seem to be enveloped in a magnificant volume of limpid, free-flowing space and form."

"The building and all its spaces and elements, make up a total environment where every detail belongs to the same family of forms. It is one instance of Saarinen's idea of the necessity of extending architecture to the total of physical surroundings and to design every object taking into account the way it relates to its neighbouring objects, small and large."

*sources:

http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/twa/

http://www.helos.fi/saarinen/

Lamster, Mark. The TWA Terminal by Ezra Stroller. Introduction, pages 1,2,3