Until I caught the journalism bug big time, I wanted to be an architect. As with many wannabe architects, Frank Lloyd Wright was my hero and I suspect had I actually followed him into the profession my buildings would have been influenced by his. That noted, I find much of modern architectural design to be boring, ugly or fetishistic, which is to say designed for the architect’s gratification alone.
Not so with I.M. Pei’s legendary Terminal 6 at JFK Airport. Built in 1970 as the National Airlines Sundrome and later used by Trans World Airlines, this monument to the early jet age “is a crisp island of aesthetic tranquility” in the words of one critic, its steel roof seems to float over the green glass and its classical restraint is what makes it such a gorgeous building.
I was in Terminal 6 only once while killing time before flying to Rome on Pan American from another terminal and was struck by the serenity of the interior space. I’m glad I took the opportunity because Terminal 6 is being demolished by the New York Port Authority to make room for the expansion of Terminal 5.
This might have been viewed as criminal at an earlier time but we have come to take our great spaces for granted and while I don’t anticipate anyone pulling down Grand Central Station or Mount Vernon anytime soon, the destruction of historical landmarks is greeted by a collective yawn.
Incidentally, the other architectural masterpiece at JFK — Eero Saarinen’s Terminal 5 with its soaring wing-like roof isn’t going anywhere and is currently being refurbished.
More here on Terminal 6.