TWA Hotel
1 Idlewild Dr, Queens, NY 11430
Last week we tackled trains and the American sociopolitical atmosphere. This week we are talking about planes and postmodernist architecture! I’ve been spending a lot of time with toddlers recently and I fear our interests are starting to align. “What’s your favorite New York airport??” you all ask in unison. “Great question,” I reply, “To answer this, I must first give you a breakdown. A mental breakdown, that is. Just outside of the TSA precheck line.”
This past weekend, I flew to California and back within a four-day span, and each of those days felt like running a marathon. Except instead of GUs, I fueled myself with an $8 bag of blue raspberry Sour Patch Kids. The macros are iffy, but it works in a pinch. (shout out to my friend Nick who actually did run the NYC marathon recently!)
The cross-continental trek averages about 10 hours each way in total travel time. JFK Airport, spoiler alert, is at the bottom of my tier list because it takes roughly an hour (and some change) of sitting in traffic to get there from my apartment. A nifty trick for avoiding traffic that I’ve always wanted to try is getting to the airport the night before my flight and staying at the TWA Hotel!
TWA, not to be confused with the MCU’s TVA (LOL, JK, YMCA, ETC.), stands for Trans World Airlines. I know that’s right! Hey, it’s a trans world & I’m just living in it! This building was used as a terminal at JFK from 1962 to 2001. After the airline’s closure, the structure was historically preserved and used for several events and as a filming location. JFK’s Terminal 5 was built across the street and the TWA flight center was repurposed and reopened as a vintage hotel & museum in 2019.
The architect for the TWA terminal was Eero Saarinen, who famously designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. At that time in history, traveling via airplanes was becoming more and more accessible to the (slightly above) average American. Air travel and the industry surrounding it was rapidly developing, leading to the ~Jet Age~. This time period was full of Googie style (no, seriously. that’s a real style of architecture and design) buildings with flying-saucer-esque shapes, large domed or slanted rooftops, and bright colors. This was what the past envisioned the future to be and boy do I wish they were right. Now we just have sad beige babies, millennial gray, and all-white hellscapes.
Saarinen had noticed most airline terminals were boring and ugly, so he set out to design a space that "interprets the sensation of flying" and "expresses the drama, specialness, and excitement of travel". I mean it's a very cool building and all, but I’m not sure I would describe traveling as “exciting” anymore. There is certainly still drama, especially when a stupid TSA agent breaks my bag for no reason.
Airports were still working out the kinks of handling large quantities of travelers. The architecture firm set out to research and observe passenger patterns at other travel hubs such as Grand Central Terminal. The team found that the people there often traveled in curving paths, even though the terminal itself was rectangular. They designed the TWA terminal using that new logic and it successfully accommodated thousands of passengers an hour!
The hotel is free to visit and has a museum inside as well. If any of you have or ever do stay here, let me know how it is! There is a large chunk of rooms that have the terminal 5 pickup line as their view. The glass they use HAS to be soundproof or else you’re just hearing honking all night. I can imagine someone opening up their curtains in the morning, ready to take on the day ahead, just to see me trying not to vomit from the stress of finding my ride amongst the sea of several hundred cars.
So to answer your question, as of right now my favorite airport is Newark. It’s only a 30-45 minute drive away from me and it just was renovated to have ample comfy seating. Coming in a very close second is LaGuardia. Vibes: amazing. Food: amazing. Distance: manageable. I feel very old when I say that getting to go to LaGuardia Airport has me excited for several days leading up. JFK can go choke. Especially terminal 4. Rant warning ahead. If you do not care about the horrific tales of my recent visit to JFK, please skip the following paragraphs.
This flipboard is actually functioning and accurate!
We got to the airport early to go to the Chase lounge (flex) which is in Terminal 4. Our terminal (T.5! Jetblue ALL DAY baby!) is a short walk over. Normally this is no biggie, but not today! I guess having TSA precheck means jack shit these days because 45 minutes later, we finally made it through security. But wait! Not quite! The TSA agent just needed to open my carry-on, open my makeup bag, and take everything out. All of that just to inspect a baby pair of hair shears that I use for my bangs. RIP to my Rare Beauty Gel Lip Liner that fell on the floor never to be seen again.
It took him, no joke, 5 straight minutes just to zip back up this tiny suitcase. It was actually his first day ever having hands. He fumbled and tumbled with it before ripping my zipper off, holding it up like a fucking idiot, and saying, “This came off.” NO SHIT! DO YOU MEAN “I BROKE THIS”?? I didn’t even wait for him to finish zipping the rest of it up before low-key (high key) aggressively grabbing my bag and storming off. A few very audible “fuck”s later, we make it to the promised land: the Chase Lounge. After all of that fuckery, we had about 45 minutes to wind down with free food and comfy chairs. Oh... it’s an hour wait. I damn near ran onto the tarmac.
mmmm jet engine exhaust
Fun Facts
The TWA Hotel was used as a set in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Catch Me If You Can!
The architect, Eero Saarinen, also designed the tulip chair. I feel like these were in my library at one point.
Connie, the 1958 TWA Constellation aircraft on-site, is one of only four of its kind left over. It is currently a cocktail bar!
That was only a snippet of the travel chaos we had that day. I'll save the rest for my future stand-up special.
Anyways… see you next week! Toodaloo!
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the people yearn to travel in curving paths