"Glorious old airports worth a fly-by"

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Glorious old airports worth a fly-by
By Susan Spano
The Los Angeles (CA) Times
 
   
People take airports for granted or, worse, abhor them, especially since the
implementation of heightened security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.

Not me. I still get as excited by the prospect of spending time in an
airport as I was when I took my first flight at age 16. 

I've also come to appreciate the aesthetic qualities of airports, many of
which are the work of distinguished contemporary architects, such as Norman
Foster, creator of state-of-the-art Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong, and Renzo
Piano, architect of Kansai airport, which is on an artificial island near
Osaka, Japan. 

Despite the downturn in the airline industry, amazing new airports continue
to rise, including Barajas airport's new terminal, a $1.6-billion project in
Madrid designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, which has also just
unveiled a plan for London Heathrow's Terminal 5.

At the same time, though, travelers are getting reacquainted with older,
smaller airports used by budget start-ups, including New York-based JetBlue,
which uses Long Beach for some of its Southern California flights, and
Europe's EasyJet, serving 55 cities across Britain and the Continent. The
new guys keep ticket prices down by flying from secondary airports, where
gate fees are relatively low. 

Though some — but not all — of these low-cost-carrier terminals are farther
from metropolitan areas than are the big hubs, travelers may find them
easier to use and less congested. 

Time, the advent of jumbo jets and a recent unfortunate party have made
relics of many of these glorious older airports. Nevertheless, I have two
favorites in this category: Eero Saarinen's stunning Terminal 5, which
opened in 1962 at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, and stern, monumental
Tempelhof in Berlin, created by Ernst Sagebiel in the late '30s for Nazi air
minister Hermann Goering. 

Terminal 5 at JFK, also known as the TWA Flight Center, is an aviation icon,
created by the architect of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Dulles
International Airport near Washington. 

Architecture critics consider Dulles a better design because it proved
expandable and is still functioning as a major airline hub. Terminal 5 was
severely strained as airport traffic grew and technological demands mounted,
resulting in its closure in 2001.

In August, JetBlue and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which
operates JFK, announced plans to reopen the Saarinen masterpiece as part of
a new Terminal 5 to be built by the budget carrier. JetBlue expects to break
ground next year, pending final approval by the Port Authority.

If you're passing though JFK, it's worth making the effort to see Terminal
5, as I did last month. This is easy to do by taking AirTrain, which links
JFK's nine terminals with nearby subway stations.

>From the new train line's elevated tracks, Terminal 5 looks singular against
the backdrop of JFK's architectural mélange, like a raptor hovering over the
tarmac, all fluid curves and swooping wings, with a beak-like porte-cochere.
"It's a magnificent piece of art in itself," said Pasquale DiFulco, a
spokesman for the Port Authority. 

Unfortunately, Terminal 5's immediate future was thrown into doubt recently
when the opening of a modern art exhibition there in early October went
disastrously awry. Inebriated guests broke open blocked-off passageways to
the runways, painted graffiti on the walls and left the building like a
trashed frat house, DiFulco said. 

Though the Port Authority remains committed to reopening the historic
building, the show was shut down and the doors were relocked, a pitiful coda
to the Terminal 5 story.

The fate of Berlin's Tempelhof is sad in its own way but a more positive
commentary on respect for an architectural landmark, which it is by any
estimation. Tempelhof was originally a Prussian parade ground and the scene
of Germany's first airplane flight and 1909 flight demonstrations by Orville
Wright. 

Adolf Hitler had it rebuilt along strictly symmetrical lines and on colossal
proportions at the onset of World War II as part of making Berlin the
capital of the Third Reich. Its crescent shape and flat rooftops allowed it
to double as an amphitheater that could accommodate 100,000 spectators for
celebrations of Nazi victories.

After the war, when the Soviets tried to drive out the Allies by blockading
roads into West Berlin in 1948 and 1949, American forces under Gen. Curtis
LeMay relayed 6,000 tons a day of crucial supplies into the city, via
Tempelhof. Older residents remember candy dropped from the sky by American
pilots.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall 15 years ago, there have been at least two
of everything in Berlin, including airports: Tegel, northwest of the city
center, for international travelers, and Schönefeld, in the former East
Germany, a modest little European budget airline hub. The city plans to
phase out Tegel and expand Schönefeld. 

Cash-strapped Tempelhof was scheduled to close at the end of October. A
court order stopped that, ruling in favor of the handful of budget airlines
that still call there. So the old Nazi showplace two miles south of the city
center will continue to function, a fascinating architectural irony.

The tentative return of life to Terminal 5 at JFK and Tempelhof is an
unexpected bonus for travelers, courtesy of the small budget carriers. I'm
not sure which I like better: the low ticket prices or the airport
architecture.


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