Tag: architecture travel

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Watch Supermodel Coco Rocha Dance Through Security at TWA's Terminal 5

February 11, 2013 at 3:52 PM | by | Comments (0)

Okay, travelers. Put on your dancing shoes because supermodel Coco Rocha has just introduced a little dance we're going to call the Airside Slide. Earlier today, Coco announced the airing of the video accompanying her work on the Spring/Summer 2013 campaign for french luxury fashion house Longchamp, and it's in this video that she and another model (Liisa Winkler) boogie down under the roof of the old Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Terminal at JFK Airport.

The premise is simple: Coco's running to catch a flight. She passes through security but keeps beeping. The TSA agent steps out to frisk her, at which point the music starts Coco spontaneously dancing, joined in the moves by Liisa.

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Eero Saarinen's Iconic TWA Terminal Reopens for Supermodel Coco Rocha

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York, NY, United States
January 3, 2013 at 10:27 AM | by | Comments (0)

During the construction of the TWA Terminal 5 at New York-JFK Airport, architect Eero Saarinen said:

TWA is beginning to look marvelous. If anything happened and they had to stop work right now and just leave it in this state, I think it would make a beautiful ruin, like the Baths of Caracalla.

Of course the lovely irony of that statement is that, though the building was completed and served its full purpose as a bustling airline terminal for decades, the end of TWA and a need for larger, more technologically advanced terminals has turned the structure into exactly what Saarinen had both hoped an feared—that of a beautiful ruin.

While redevelopment rumors come and go, there's no doubt that the TWA Terminal is an ideal place for movie shoots—Catch Me If You Can famously filmed here—as well as fashion spreads.

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27 Solid Reasons Why Palm Springs is the Bomb Diggity

December 27, 2012 at 2:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

1. This is the airport.

Yes, it's partly open-air. Yes, one concourse is named for Sonny Bono. [Photo taken at PSP]

2. Sometimes the clouds look like UFOs

If there are clouds at all. [Photo taken at The Ace Hotel & Swim Club]

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Frankfurt Airport's New A-Plus Concourse: A Super Home for Superjumbos

Where: Frankfurt International Airport, Frankfurt, Germany
November 19, 2012 at 11:04 AM | by | Comments (0)

Last month, Lufthansa opened the brand-spanking-new A-Plus Concourse at Germany's Frankfurt International Airport. Why's it so special? Well, among other things, it's directly designed for the biggest, baddest airplanes out there. We're talking A340s, 747s, 747-8is, and the almighty A380. This week, we'll take you inside and all around this place through which some 6 million travelers will journey each year.

If you're an airport whose tarmac is already crawling with superjumbos and you're about to add another 6 million passengers per year, what do you need? The answer: Lots and lots of space. German efficiency. An airline with enough mega planes and super long routes to keep the place hopping. So there you go. The answer is Frankfurt and its hometown airline, Lufthansa.

Speaking of German efficiency, let's talk tech. For passengers, Pier A-Plus boasts self-scan boarding gates, which are awesome if you hate waiting in lines. For operations, the addition of A-Plus means Frankfurt International has the world's largest airport baggage handling system. All of this becomes more and more important with each day, as Frankfurt looks to have a whopping 90 million travelers annually by 2020, up from 56 million in 2011. And those flyers will be stepping into FRA from more and more superjumbo aircraft.

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Inside Frankfurt Airport's Completely New A-Plus Concourse: Six Million Travelers Can't Be Wrong

Where: Frankfurt International Airport, Frankfurt, Germany
November 16, 2012 at 1:42 PM | by | Comment (1)

Last month, Lufthansa opened the brand-spanking-new A-Plus Concourse at Germany's Frankfurt International Airport. Why's it so special? Well, among other things, it's directly designed for the biggest, baddest airplanes out there. We're talking A340s, 747s, 747-8is, and the almighty A380. This week, we'll take you inside and all around this place through which some 6 million travelers will journey each year.

0500 hours.

The seatbelt sign is on and traytables are up and locked. The Lufthansa Airbus A380 named "Tokio" is on final approach to Frankfurt International and we're inside.

Seat 15K.

It's a window, upper deck, right over the hulking wing of this superjumbo. Looking out, the airport on the horizon glows with the fluorescence of its millions of lights, pre-dawn. Usually we're not super anxious to leave a plane to experience the airport, but Frankfurt is an exception.

Wheels down.

Turning off onto the taxiway, we can already spot the many Lufthansa crane logos that adorn each Star Alliance gate. It's pretty obvious who rules this coop.

Rounding a corner, the A380 aims for its new home on the ground—a long, sleek concourse with gates and facilities designed for its massive dimensions. Whereas the plane squeezes itself into other airports, like buttoning pants two sizes too small, here it finds Frankfurt's just-opened A-Plus Concourse is tailor-made with breathing room. Once we've parked, three jetbridges stretch out to welcome over 500 passengers into these fresh digs.

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We Want to Go to There: The Giant Roller Coaster Staircase

November 15, 2012 at 2:08 PM | by | Comment (1)

Is it a roller coaster? Is a staircase? Um, well, what you see above is actually a combination of both. Oh, and it's also an artwork.

Blog Spot Cool Stuff spotted this...cool stuff...and now we're obsessed.

Sitting in the German town of Duisburg, about an hour outside of Düsseldorf, this interactive sculpture encourages the public to get up and walk its rails. There'll be no roller coaster cars barreling down the track towards you, as the entire thing consists of good old steps. In fact, the piece's name, "The Turtle and Tiger," plays with this:

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This is a Yacht Designed by Steve Jobs and Philippe Starck

November 12, 2012 at 4:31 PM | by | Comments (0)

Do you ever find your mind wandering into the realm of "I wonder what [insert anything] would look like if it was designed by Apple?" Of course we've already seen how this plays out when applied to computers, music players, mobile phones and even maps, but what about a yacht?!

Well, wonder no more. Steve Jobs actually did put his talents towards a megayacht design and, though he's passed, that boat lives on.

Christened the Venus, the 80m/262' beast was unveiled at the end of October in Aalsmeer, Holland. As is normal with private yachts of this size and innovation, there are no interior photos to drool over nor is there an announcement of who will actually own the Venus. Odds are good that more than a few would love to charter it, however.

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Madrid-Barajas' Architecture Deserves a Long Layover

Where: Madrid, Spain
October 16, 2012 at 12:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

Airports are more than just a roof to sit under while transiting to a new city. More often they become places filled with the joy of reuniting friends or the sadness of bidding fond adieu, but most always they are a reflection of that particular city's local flare. With great design, an airport can be a way to show off to foreign visitors. Madrid's Barajas Airport, more specifically, the new-ish Terminal 4, is a prime example.

We admit, it's no Eero Saarinen, but this terminal gave us a sore neck the moment we walked under its high ceilings and colorful support beams. Completed and opened to the public in 2006 and home to Iberia, it's ranked among the top coolest airports through which we've had the pleasure of transiting.

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Inside the Iconic TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport (Again)

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York, NY, United States
October 8, 2012 at 11:32 AM | by | Comments (0)

Off limits. That's sadly how we know the TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport today. No flights fly from it, no passengers check in beneath its departures board, and no cocktails are pushed across the bar of the Lisbon Lounge...any longer.

Unless you're renting out the entire space for a big-budget event or photoshoot (as Banana Republic recently did for their fall/winter 2012 ads), there's no way inside...with the exception of one day when the Flight Center is opened, for free, to the public during the openhousenewyork (OHNY) festival.

This last weekend may have been the 10th anniversary of OHNY, but it's only the second year the TWA Flight Center has participated. The first year obviously went well enough as they extended the hours for 2012, which nicely thinned the crowd to make for ideal photography and a mood that approached conviviality. To put it simply, it just seemed like everyone was truly enjoying being there.

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Design Under Your Derriere: The Eames 'Tandem Sling' Airport Chair

October 4, 2012 at 4:06 PM | by | Comments (0)

Look at your chair right now. What is it made of? What's its shape? Is it comfortable? No matter your answers, there's a good chance that chair pales in comparison to one most commonly found in airports. Hear us out.

The strikingly modernist terminal building of Washington-Dulles International may have been designed by Eero Saarinen, but...those stylish rows of black chairs inside? Credit for these goes to Charles & Ray Eames. Perhaps you've heard their names before? They were, after all, behind other iconic furniture designs such as the DAR and No. 670, but without a doubt it's their "Tandem Sling" you'll likely encounter the most in your lifetime if you fly through US airports with any regularity.

Dulles, believe it or not, was the first airport engineered to accommodate jets. It opened in 1962, the same year the Eames' Tandem Sling was copyrighted, which isn't a coincidence; the Tandem Sling debuted with the airport, also counting the freshly built Chicago-O'Hare Airport as a client.

You'll still see (and sit on) these chairs at these airports today, not to mention the fact that many, many other airports followed suit. We snapped the photos below just a few days ago at Detroit-Metro, for example.

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Get Inside JFK Airport's TWA Flight Center for One Day This Fall

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York, NY, United States
August 22, 2012 at 4:10 PM | by | Comments (0)

YESSSSSSSSS. Please commence with the exuberant jumping around (we have) as it was just announced that the TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport will again be open to the public for one day this coming fall: Sunday, October 7.

The reason? The 10th annual openhousenewyork festival (OHNY), a weekend event that flings open private doors to showcase typically hidden gems of the city. Last year was the very first instance of the TWA Flight Center welcoming hoards of the curious and, even better, access was free!

The ohny newsletter noted this year's good news, but further information is minimal. Here's what it said:

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Yet Another New Life for Chicago's Old Waterfront Airport

August 3, 2012 at 1:10 PM | by | Comments (2)

If you're old enough or just Chicago enough, you'll have heard of the saga of Chicago's Meigs Field/Northerly Island. In 1933, this bit of land that jutted out from downtown Chicago was made the center of the World's Fair. In 1948, the land became the single runway airport Meigs Field, which was controversially closed for good in 2003 when Chicago's mayor Daley tore up the runways in the middle of the night, with the aim of making it a park according to the 1909 plan of Chicago's city planner, Daniel Burnham.

We last visited the finished park in spring 2010, enjoying a leisurely stroll on paths surrounded by prairie grass, where once was a runway. We even peeked into the closed '60s-era terminal that still stands. Well, it turns out that isn't the finished product at all, as Chicago has even more ambitious plans for the manmade island-turned airport-turned park.

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