It was a beautiful day for a fake flight: The sky was blue, the sun was bright and the Airtrain was quickly depositing 1,000 people onto JetBlue's new turf behind Eero Saarinen's iconic TWA Terminal at JFK.
Saturday's event, the JetBlue T5 Trial Run, involved groups of New York-area TrueBlue members (us), JetBlue family and press who would put the terminal through the paces without actually flying anyone anywhere.
Last week when we received the email confirming our place in Group A--scheduled to start the first run-through at 9 am--our stomach sank at the thought of having to be out on the A train to JFK in the wee hours of a Saturday morning. But to the airport we went!
There's a lot of great Eero Saarinen action right here in the United States, but he didn't limit his works to the states. One example of his adventures overseas is the Embassy of the United States in London that sits in Grosvenor Square. Finished in 1960, it's one of the largest American diplomatic offices in the world.
The building consists of nine stories, with three of them below ground. The facility is topped with a gilded aluminum Bald Eagle with a wingspan of more than 35 feet. Besides the US embassy in Japan, the London post is the only one situated on land not owned by the American government. Let's just hope the United Kingdom doesn't get any ideas.
Besides handing out visas and other paperwork, the building is traditionally used as the setting for announcing any agreements between the UK and US. Maybe you'll even get to visit on your next trip to London after spending a little too much time at the pub and getting belligerent in the streets!
Last we heard from JetBlue, there wasn't much new happening at the still-under-contruction T5 at JFK. But The New York Times dug up some juicy new details on the innovative new dining and shopping options coming to the airport's newest addition this fall.
The 26-gate terminal will have dining bars, pictured, scattered throughout, with plug ins for your electronics and touch-screen ordering a la Virgin America's RED. Tap in an order, and it's delivered to you a few minutes later. In the heart of T5, a 10,000-square-foot food court will have a Whole Foods-style buffet of hot and cold items, perfect for grabbing on the run.
Fancier options include a "rustic Italian trattoria," a sushi spot, a brasserie, a tapas joint and a Mexican place, all of which count chefs from popular NYC restaurants as consultants.
On the retail side, be on the lookout for a Muji outpost to compliment two other locations in New York. There will also be a an outlet for WFAN, a local sports radio station, and 17 other shops.
As you can probably tell, we just can't get enough of Eero Saarinen over here. As we continue to lust over the Finnish-American architect, we travel to Rochester, Minnesota to see the facility he created for one of America's most well-known companies. Construction of IBM Rochester began in 1956 and when first completed, it created 576,000 square feet of work space for the company.
The building has grown over the years and now represents the largest IBM facility in the world under one roof. The Rochester staff has received over 2,700 US patents for product innovation over the years.
Speaking of JFK, with our heavy focus last week on architect Eero Saarinen, what better time is there to check in on progress at the airport's new Terminal 5? We went straight to the source, asking JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin what was up.
Here's what he said:
T5 is progressing very nicely. We're scheduled for a late September operational start date. The exact date is still being finalized. The project is still on budget, and a September opening will put us almost six months ahead of schedule.
Don't worry: We'll be trying our best to get another sneak preview before T5 finally opens to fliers this fall.
If you've been following this week's coverage of Eero Saarinen, then today's focus should be instantly recognizable. Constructed between 1953 and 1955, the Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology displays many of the themes that we've seen in his works so far. The building was named in honor of S. S. Kresge, founder of the company that would later become K-Mart. Although not a graduate of MIT, he apparently had some pretty strong cash reserves.
As we continue to explore the works of Eero Saarinen and his architectural adventures, we move to Indiana. Like his father, Eliel Saarinen, who created the First Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana, the younger Saarinen designed the North Christian Church there as well. Completed in 1964, the church was the last building he designed before his death.
Although Eero Saarinen seemed to have a passion for flight, he must have also had a passion for education--he at very least was able to take advantage of schools with deep pockets. As a prime example, Yale University commissioned Saarinen to design a distinctive hockey rink, and the David S. Ingalls Rink, built between 1953 and 1958, is still going strong today as it continues to hold just shy of 3,500 fans for men's and women's hockey.
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by JetSetCD
