For years, the old TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK International Airport has taunted us. Situated right in front of the new-ish JetBlue Terminal 5, the Eero Saarinen-designed masterpiece was so close and yet, so far.

Opened in 1962 and closed in 2001 after TWA went bust and was taken into American Airlines, Terminal 5 is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and undergoing slow renovations (that's what happens when you've got asbestos and close proximity to functioning flights). It's not been open to the public since, save for a few short months in 2004 for an art exhibition. This weekend, however, the Open House New York event flung open the doors for four hours and half the city showed up to check out this historical gem.]]> JetSetCD 2011-10-17T12:24:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/2/7/10170/54422

What's the big news on the airport front this morning? Oh, just that New York-JFK could be getting a new hotel...inside of the old, landmark-protected TWA Terminal 5. The building, designed by Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962, is an architectural and design gem of the Mad Men-era, one that has outlasted (and outshined) other similar fancy airport buildings (ah hem Pan Am Worldport).

Anyways, the TWA Flight Center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and thus has been able to escape the wrecking ball. JetBlue even went and built their giant, shiny T5 at JFK behind it, but left enough buffer space between the two buildings for contractors to envision a hotel. There's no takers on the project just yet, which would ideally be a high-end, boutique hotel set just behind the Terminal, utilizing the iconic original structure as a sort of juiced-up hotel lobby, and we don't think there ever will be. Here's why: ]]> JetSetCD 2011-02-07T11:37:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/1/19/135319/560

While you can expect a new airline terminal to have a thing for reminiscing over the chic days of burgeoning jet travel, Jetblue's Terminal 5 at JFK has stepped beyond retro cocktail lounges and barbershops to embrace a designer shoeshine stand.

Paying homage to the design of the original TWA Terminal 5, designed by Eero Saarinen, Jetblue's stand has taken the famous "Egg" chair design by another Scandinavian contemporary of Saarinen, Arne Jacobsen, and transformed it into a shoeshine worthy of the history of the location. Operated by A Shine & Co. out of San Francisco, the stand employs a colorful cast of people who actually act as though buffing your loafers was the highlight of their day.

Because of New York's recent heavy winter weather and all of the resulting salt on the streets, we bet that A Shine & Co. is doing brisk business restoring the sheen to many shoes. This might no longer be the days of wingtips, but it is always nice to see someone attempting to make the best arrival appearance as possible. Now to rid the world of "travel sweatpants."

Related Stories:
· A Shine & Co. [Official Site]
· T5 at JFK coverage [Jaunted]
]]> JetSetCD 2009-01-19T14:32:38-05:00 40.6424805 -73.788071 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/12/22/1259/1442

While Ellen Wernecke was dealing with the five stages of flight delays at LGA recently, our occasional correspondent JetSetCD was enjoying the new T5 at JFK, built by an airline that knows something about awful winter weather.

As New York City buttoned up on Friday for its first snowstorm of the season, I headed straight into the belly of the beast. Although I've been to JetBlue's new Terminal 5 at JFK twice before on trial runs, I'd yet to actually fly out of it under full operation. With strong winds and heavy snow forecast for the day, I decided to forget about the possibility of delay for my flight and instead focus on watching the new, innovative terminal stretch its legs.

Despite the flood of New Yorkers headed out of town on the Friday before Christmas, the wait at security was non-existent and I quickly found myself snuggling in with the WiFi warriors in the food court. When JetBlue described this concourse as inspired by Union Square in New York, they must've meant something more like Whole Foods; there is a deli-style buffet with an abundance of fresh salad choices, barrels of bags of apple chips versus potato chips, fresh fruit to cure your travel scurvy and the best looking donuts I've ever sunk my teeth into. (The perfect frosting alone was award-winning food porn.)]]> JetSetCD 2008-12-22T13:30:35-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/26/93423/5418

Crisis at JFK! The new JetBlue terminal will not--repeat, will not--open on October 1!

While the carrier insists that construction is on schedule, a spokeswoman tells the Associated Press:

The operational opening was delayed to give [our] Marketplace vendors more time to complete necessary work.

Hey, we like fully operational wine-and-tapas bars as much as the next guy, but we're definitely not happy that we'll have to wait until October 22 to check 'em out.

Related Stories:
· JetBlue Delays Opening of Terminal [AP, via BW]
· Inside JetBlue's Terminal 5 Opening Party [Jaunted]
· There Will Be Live Blogging: JetBlue's T5 Grand Opening Already Underway [Jaunted]
· Inside JetBlue's Terminal 5 Trial Run [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-09-26T09:35:11-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/23/852/21360

Our ever-stylish correspondent JetSetCD was on-hand for JetBlue's ribbon cutting bash yesterday...

Yesterday's shindig out at JetBlue's new Terminal 5 was no boring, corporate ribbon-cutting, nossir it was not. Instead, the carrier threw a straight-up block party to celebrate more than just a new address; the festivities and congratulations all centered on JetBlue's employees, many of whom turned out to spend half the day cavorting in their future workplace.

Getting business out of the way with a packed-to-the-gills press conference at 2 pm, where JetBlue founder (and current Azul airline mogul) David Neeleman entered to an immediate standing ovation, the day slowly progressed into pure fun with a performance by Estelle and free booze.

]]> Jaunted 2008-09-23T09:21:16-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/9/22/161418/163

JetBlue's new Terminal 5 may not be open to the public yet, but there seem to be approximately 17 billion people on hand for the ribbon cutting today, as seen in this video starring CEO Dave Barger.

In the crowd are David Neeleman (just in from Brazil?), New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and The Rockettes.

Also on view at the new terminal are some fancy seats from Lufthansa, which owns 19 percent of JetBlue. And our spy on the scene says they're serving "T5-tinis," which sounds nice!

Related Stories:
· T5 Live Blog [Official Site]
· There Will Be Live Blogging: JetBlue's T5 Grand Opening Already Underway [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-09-22T16:16:13-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/