"Design of New Tampa, Fla., Airport Expansion Stresses Passenger Comfort"

Friday, August 1, 2003

Design of New Tampa, Fla., Airport Expansion Stresses Passenger Comfort
The Tampa (FL) Tribune


TAMPA, Fla.--Albert Alfonso recalls with pride the work of his late father,
Carlos Sr., in the original design of Tampa International Airport. 

And now the Alfonso name remains part of the architecture teams involved in
designing a new Airside C that will become home to Southwest Airlines and
Spirit Airlines in 2005. 

Albert Alfonso's design uses the notion of passenger comfort that his father
employed for TIA, which opened in 1971. 

That concept is among the reasons the airport has earned awards over the
years. But the new structure will include plenty of fashionable attributes,
as well, while keeping distances people must walk to a minimum. 

"We don't want this to have the feeling of a mall," Alfonso said, discussing
features such as sprawling vistas to view aircraft and spaces where large
pieces of art can be displayed. 

Tampa-based Alfonso Architects and others in The Beck Group design-build
team revealed details Thursday of the $120 million to $130 million project,
including $64 million dedicated to construction. 

It's destined to be the airport's largest airside, the outlying facility
where passengers board and leave airliners. 

The facility will replace the original Airside C, which Delta Air Lines,
United Airlines and Air Canada vacated in October to move into a new Airside
E. 

In the shuffle of airlines to accommodate the airport's growth of schedules,
Southwest will become the prime tenant at Airside C and initially use 10 of
its 16 gates. 

Airport officials and designers worked with Southwest to accommodate its
needs, which include rapid turnaround of aircraft between landing and
departures and Southwest's queuing patterns when passengers board the
aircraft. 

The new Airside C will accommodate charter flights, including hometown and
visiting professional sports teams, airport Director Louis Miller said. 

Teams or other charter groups that have passed security screening will wait
in a special, ground-floor area to avoid distractions with the traveling
public. 

Tampa International also has begun to plan for a new air traffic control
tower the Federal Aviation Administration will operate a decade from now. 

Officials will study two sites north of the main terminal for a larger,
taller tower that can accommodate new equipment. A new tower would overcome
current sightline obstructions that do not obscure aircraft or pose a safety
hazard, but prevent controllers from seeing all the way to the ground at the
fringes of some taxiways.


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