TRANS WORLD AIRLINE TERMINAL

 The TWA Flight Center or Trans World Flight

Center opened in 1962 as the original terminal
designed by Eero Saarinen for Trans World
Airlines at New York's John F. Kennedy
International Airport (JFK).
 Eero Saarinen and his Detroit-based firm were
commissioned in 1956 to design the TWA Flight
Center and given the directive by the client to
capture the spirit of flight.
 By doing so the building took form of a huge bird
with wings spread in flight. Known as an
indefatigable architect, Saarinen indicated to his
client he needed more time — taking another
year to resolve the design
 The completed terminal was dedicated May
28, 1962 — a year after the architect's
death
 The interior had wide glass windows that
opened onto parked TWA jets; departing
passengers would walk to planes through
round, red-carpeted tubes. It was a far
different structure and form than
Saarinen's design for the current main
terminal of Washington Dulles
International Airport, which utilized
mobile lounges to take passengers to
airplanes.
 One of the most self-assured, self-confident
even self-conscious buildings to emerge as a
result of the interplay of the architectonic and
engineer-inspired buildings was Saarinen's TWA
Terminal Buildings at New York. It alarmed the
remaining purists of modern architecture. Its
bird-like symbolism, exciting forms and
cavernous interior were not simply a casual
reminder of the changes that had taken place in
architectural thinking in the 1950s, but a
demonstration of the architect's role as an
originator and, in the American scene, as a
'building stylist'. Clearly it represented a revival
of architectural Expressionism
Eero Saarinen (August 20,
1910 – September 1, 1961)
was a Finnish American
architect and industrial
designer of the 20th
century famous for varying
his style according to the
demands of the project:
simple, sweeping, arching
structural curves or
machine-like rationalism.
 Saarinen is now considered one of the
masters of American 20th Century
architecture. There has been a
veritable surge of interest in
Saarinen's work in recent years,
including a major exhibition and
several books. He was criticized in his
own time most by critic Vincent
Scully for having no identifiable style;
one explanation for this is that
Saarinen adapted his modernist vision
to each individual client and project,
which were never exactly the same.
 Eero Saarinen was elected a Fellow of the
American Institute of Architects in 1952.
He is also a winner of the AIA Gold
Medal.
 Saarinen's terminal for TWA is sculpted as
a symbol of flight - abstract, and not
intentionally as a landing eagle as it has often
been described.

 Saarinen's original futuristic design

featured a prominent wing-shaped thin shell
roof over the main terminal (head house),
unusual tube-shaped departure-arrival
corridors originally wrapped in red carpet
and critical to the spirit of the design
expansive windows that highlighted
departing and arriving jets.
 The concrete shell's evocative shape
which inspired Saarinen to develop
special, curved edge ceramic tile to
conform to the curvilinear shapes,
places the design into the categories
and Fantastic architecture.
 The expressive curves of the design
create attractive, spacious halls and a
rare degree of exhilaration for an
airport terminal.
 Although the building appears to be made
of sculptural concrete, the structure is in
fact braced within the concrete by an
invisible web of reinforcing steel.
 In order to capture the concept of flight,
Saarinen used curves to create spaces that
flowed into one another. The exterior’s
concrete roof imitates a bird in flight with
two massive “wings.” The interior consists
of a continuous ribbon of elements, all
whisking themselves in from the exterior,
so that ceilings continously run into walls
and those walls become floors
The Creator's Words

 "All the curves, all the spaces and

elements right down to the shape of the
signs, display boards, railings and check-
in desks were to be of a matching nature.
wanted passengers passing through the
building to experience a fully-designed
environment, in which each part arises
from another and everything belongs to
the same formal world."
Sectional drawing
of TWA terminal ,
showing general
arrangement
beneath the four
major vaults.
 PLAN

SECTION
The central staircase area beneath the intersection of
four vaults.
Japanese mosaic tiles cover the cantilevered
desk and departure board in ticket lobby.
One of the curvilinear service wings which reach
out from beneath the concrete vaults.
A sunken lounge space over-looking the airport.
One of the tunnels leading to the plane-loading
fingers.
EXTERIOR
VIEW
INTERIOR
VIEW