Eero Saarinen’s iconic TWA Flight Center with its famous wing-shaped roof opened in 1962, and most recently functioned as JetBlue’s home at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The terminal is being turned into a hotel featuring 505 guest rooms, 50,000 square feet of meeting space, and a 10,000-square-foot observation deck. Saarinen’s sunken lounge conversation pit concept, popular during the 1960s, will be recreated as part of the meeting space. Guest rooms will be located in two buildings behind the landmarked gull-wing structure, which will host a 200,000-square-foot lobby, retail outlets, and restaurants. The building will also host a Jet Age museum exhibiting TWA uniforms, memorabilia, and mid-century furniture.
Construction began in 2016 after a groundbreaking ceremony with New York Governor Cuomo and the hotel is expected to open in 2019. The TWA Hotel will be the first lodging on site at the Queens airport, accessible to guests via AirTran and Saarinen-designed passenger tubes to JFK’s Terminal 5.
One proposed on-site restaurant and bar will be located inside a repurposed Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft connected to the hotel via a jetway.
