"PHX Terminal 2 to get one last face lift"

Friday, January 21, 2005

Terminal 2 to get one last face lift 
By Hal Mattern
The Arizona Republic


For years, Terminal 2 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has been
on the verge of being demolished to make room for a larger, more modern
passenger facility.

But the terminal, the smallest and oldest one at the nation's fifth-busiest
airport, has managed to escape the wrecking ball. And now, airport officials
are planning to remodel T2 to make it more efficient and passenger-friendly
for what is expected to be its final decade in existence.

"I came to Arizona in 1988, and every year we have been told it was going to
be demolished the next year," said Paul Blue, deputy director of business
and properties at Sky Harbor. "I am operating under the 10-year plan. It
probably will be at least seven or eight years before we would see
construction start on a new terminal." 

Blue said preliminary plans call for redesigning T2's lobby to change
traffic patterns and to double the number of lanes at the security
checkpoint. Some of the retail outlets and restaurants probably will be
relocated and remodeled, he said.

There also will be work on things passengers don't see, such as electrical,
plumbing and heating and air conditioning systems. The terminal's elevators
and escalators also will be remodeled. No price has been set for the
project, which is expected to be completed in about 18 months. 

Terminal 2 was opened in the spring of 1962, the same year Sky Harbor broke
the 1 million passenger mark. Constructed for $2.7 million, it was one of
the country's most modern terminals at the time, with 330,000 square feet of
space.

Its most striking feature is a three-panel mosaic mural in the lobby
depicting the history of Phoenix as it rises out of the desert and heads
toward the future.

Phoenix planners originally hoped the new terminal, along with Terminal 1,
would be able to handle growth at the airport until the year 2000. But
passenger traffic tripled at Sky Harbor in less than 10 years. 

By the time construction of the $35 million Terminal 3 began in 1976, 4.4
million people were flying in and out of the airport. When T3 opened in
October 1979, annual passenger traffic had reached 7 million. 

Continued passenger growth resulted in the construction of the $248 million
Terminal 4, which opened in November 1990. That same year, the aging
Terminal 1 was demolished, but the remaining terminals were never
renumbered.

Many passengers consider Terminal 2 to be the easiest to navigate because it
has smaller crowds and more convenient parking than at the airport's larger
terminals. But Blue said that in recent years surveys have indicated that
passengers consider it to be outdated.

"It is starting to wear out, and over time the building hasn't evolved the
way air travel has," he said, noting, for example, that the terminal's
waiting areas at the gates are too small.

"Those are things we can't fix, so we are doing what we can to make it
better," Blue said. "Part of the remodeling is to improve the environment."


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