A while ago I said I would at some future point write about interesting architecture. Well, folks, here it is. The architect in question, Eero Saarinen, is responsible for this:
The photo credit goes to Ezra Stoller, who has a well-deserved reputation as a photographer of modern architecture. This is the TWA terminal at what is now JFK airport in New York. I'm pretty sure that when I moved away from the US I departed from some other terminal at JFK and never saw this one. So that's one more place to see. . . .
I've always admired the interior, the way it curves and bends. And I also like the architect's philosophy that even the smallest detail is part of the whole and should be treated as such. When I look at pictures of Saarinen's terminal, I am irresistibly reminded of a cave and of the Jetsons. It has a marvelous "this is what they thought the future would look like back in the past" feel.
Saarinen is also the architect behind the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial--more commonly known as the St. Louis Arch, which incidentally was completed on this day 40 years ago.
6 comments:
Dang, I missed that one as well when I few in and out of JFK... and we spent so much time there... so much time. Had I known, I'd have gone and checked it out. That really is beautiful.
I wonder if it has the same beauty in real life or if it's a totally different experience. Excellent photographer's have a way of influencing the way a piece of art is viewed just by the way they take the photograph... the perspective the use influences the way we view the piece. Viewing art through art.
"is what they thought the future would look like back in the past"
haha i love that. falls in the category of the flying car and spaceships...maybe one day...
Kathleen, if you do an image search on google you'll find a lot of photos of this structure that aren't nearly so good as Stoller's. All the same, I'd like to see it for myself.
Terminal 5!
It's actually closed. Or was, I'm not sure now. I guess because there is no more TWA? I think Jet Blue had it, but I'm not sure.
I agree about the photo giving it something extra, though it is still very Jetsons-like in person.
How JFK can have this terminal, and then some of the worst terminals in America (example- American Airlines, Terminal 8, I believe, a dingy, depressing place with one restaurant where you can get microwave pizza pockets) is curious indeed.
oops, sorry, the above was me. I wasn't trying to be sneaky and anonymous.
-Amy
Thats cool.
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