travel

Architecture Monday

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I just got a chance to visit the revitalized TWA Terminal (now a Hotel) at JFK airport…in all its sensual, sinuous, and soaring glory!

Unfortunately as I was under some time pressure heading off to catch a flight in a different terminal building, I didn’t get a chance to really admire it from the outside (so the linked photos that remain from my previous post on the building will have to suffice), but what I saw and experienced inside more than made up for it. In a word, it’s stunning.

It’s decidedly classic retro-futurism (or perhaps still neo-futurist) now, but the ‘nostalgic’ feel isn’t what really got me.  It’s the space, the glorious space, with it’s outstretched wings soaring overhead and how it, and its structure, and just about every other single object in the space seems to be connected, seamlessly merging and swooping and emerging from the other until it becomes a single object.  And the sunbeams!  They add a strong element I hadn’t considered before.

With the addition of the new jetway (and the hotel wings as well) behind the original terminal building, the huge expanse of glass no longer looks out onto the tarmac as it once would have, cutting it off a bit.  But placing an old prop painted in TWA livery (which itself is now a cocktail bar) helps keep some of that old feel alive.

Ok, natch, the retro-furniture does evoke some fantastical and nostalgic feels!

The subtle tile work on the underside of all the swoops.

And I’m never going to get tired of the swooping forms lifting off into flight to become cantilevered seats, bars, counters, and more…

My photos aren’t the best here, as with the time pressure I wanted to spend more time being present and experiencing the space rather than into the camera. And glad I did, I could have spent hours more there to experience every bit of it.  A true delight and masterpiece.

The TWA Flight Center by Eero Saarinen and Warren Platner.

Wonder Wednesday

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There’s something just so iconic about the green and white bi-level GO Train cars, especially the older riveted ones (you can also see one of the newer welded ones in the background).  It always amuses me to see them operating with different different livery on other services… they look so familiar yet also so not quite right?  (But I’m always happy that their design is standing the test of time and providing so much great transit!)

photo by me

Wonder Wednesday

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This is both amazing as well as mesmerizing… the Tokyo Shinkansen train station serving all eastern routes, with a super busy schedule and only four platforms, and the amazing and hyper-precise dance of incoming and leaving trains, nearly once every 4 minutes, with the incoming train often passing the outgoing mere moments after it leaves the station!  Astoundingly well run.

Snowy Rails Thursday

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In the mood for a little bit of train porn this evening?  Then this video is perfect, a serene transfer run, starting in the lowlands and moving upwards into the mountain and snow….

And while the whole video is great, this segment here is the climax, in a wonderful mix of sun, bold clouds, icy lakes, white mountains, and snow blowing across the tracks all during a high speed run with the soothing monotony of the engine.  Lovely.

Wonder Wednesday

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As a bit of a rail fan, taking the Oslo to Bergen railway during my visit to Norway was a definite highlight.  We didn’t go all the way to Bergen, shunting off at Myrdal to take the even more famous Flåm railway line, one of the steepest regular rail lines in the world, dropping 866m over about 20km in length.  As you might expect, it is a visually stunning rail line, nestled in the mountains and full of gorges and rivers and waterfalls.  We traveled during the late summer and it was gorgeous, and I imagined it would be absolutely stunning to also see in the snow.

And now I know!  Here’s a cab-forward view of the line, taking the route from the bottom to the top, in full, 4k glory, filmed by one of the operators:

And if that’s not enough, her channel has a multitude of videos from all along the Oslo to Bergen line, in all seasons, including a continuous stream (but not live) to leave on in the background and ‘look out the window’ at every now and again, while chatting with fellow rail enthusiasts.  Lovely!

Architecture Monday

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Let’s fly back to the future tonight.  To 1962.  To a building that looks very much like it’s going to take flight.  One that both ushered in a new era of air travel and has lost no power in its experience so many decades later.

Soaring, sinuous, sensual concrete that soars, emerging from the ground and arcing seamlessly into forms that very much evoke outstretched wings.  This is the greatest magic of the building, these curving forms that never cease and make for an enclosure that blurs the distinction between floor, wall, and ceiling, punctuated by ribbons of skylights that, coupled with the ginormous windows, belie any weighty feel of the concrete it is made of.  Lofty is an apt term, and walking in it pulls you forward, urging exploration and hinting at the adventure to come.

How each form blends into each other is the second magic.  A railing becomes a column column becomes a seat becomes a check in desk becomes a sign.  Natch, there’s something enticing of the classic 60’s décor and aesthetics, but this is a building that transcends simple nostalgia.  The design is expertly handled; all those merging lines and curves could have very easily become a right and confusing mess of visual clutter.

But let’s not totally discount that great furniture and décor.  Purpose built to fit in, the red upholstery contrasts strikingly with the white marble inlays in the concrete.  We’d call it retro-future now, and it’s still great.

Definitively a classic, one of the great designs of the world.  Fortunately, it has avoided the fate of closure and is in the midst of being reinvented as a hotel, due to open next year.  When next I’m in NYC, I’ve got to visit.

The TWA Flight Center/Terminal, by Eero Saarinen.

(Of interesting additional note: this was also the first air terminal to incorporate many of what we’d consider just par for the course these days — jetways, public address system, electric schedule board, even baggage carousels…)