JFK Airport Masterpiece
Slated For Demolition
Make JFK
Sundrome A Landmark
 Historians
and regular people who enjoy old buildings are equally challenged.
For every iconic structure saved, hundreds,
even thousands (in the case of Shanghai, for example) are lost forever
in the never-ending building surge.
Now, at JFK International Airport in New
York, whilst focus has been on The Eero Saarinen TWA Building (Terminal
Five), a landmark that fronts a new billion-dollar Jet Blue Airways
Terminal, another building of equal importance has been slated for destruction
by the Port Authority of New & New Jersey (PANY&NJ).
Terminal Six at JFK was designed by Ieoh
Ming (IM) Pei and opened in 1970.
What is particularly outrageous is that
PANY & NJ lumps this treasure almost as an afterthought in a press
release announcement April 29 declaring the razing of a bunch of derelict
air cargo buildings that would probably fall down under their own weight,
if left unattended.
A source said that the plan for Terminal
Six would include keeping the Sundrome “with modifications”
and demolishing the ramp-side part of the structure so that JetBlue
can move its international flights, which are currently operating from
Terminal Four, into a rebuilt Terminal Six (Terminal Five) complex.
But in fact the PANY & NJ press release
makes no mention of saving anything about Terminal Six, stating bluntly:
“Terminal Six, which housed JetBlue
before the airline moved to its new Terminal Five in October 2008, also
will be demolished.”
 The
person who might make the difference in all of this is PANY & NJ
Aviation Director, Susan M. Baer (right) who, while currently broadcasting
the benefits of tearing down air cargo buildings (The
New York Times, May 4), has in the past been quite vocal in professing
her concern and desire to protect historic airport buildings.
But Ms. Baer has been curiously silent
as one of the most historic facilities ever built at any airport in
the world faces elimination under her watch.
Today’s PANY & NJ management
may not like what they have to deal with in the form of older airport
facilities, but in many cases these buildings are too important, both
artistically and for their part in aviation history to be unceremoniously
thrown away.
IM Pei designs are treasured everywhere—for
example in Paris, where his Louvre Pyramid is world famous or in Boston,
Massachusetts, where his Hancock Tower and John F. Kennedy Library are
highly regarded or in Berlin with his iconic German Historical Museum
that opened in 2003 or even here in New York with the Javits Center.
At JFK, the Master’s Terminal Six,
"Sundrome," was in fact the first window-wall construction
at any airport in the world.
Terminal Six Sundrome should be declared
a historic and national aviation landmark.
The Port Authority of New York & New
Jersey should keep their mitts off the place until a thorough review
is conducted by independent historians and preservationists.
The aviation and preservation community
must have a chance to insure the future of this absolute jewel surviving,
as IM Pei created it.
Landmark status for Terminal Six will
create a powerful bar and guarantee accountability, and in some manner
oversee the future of this building against mindless renovation or threat
of destruction.
Our view is that a large part of the problem
facing IM Pei’s Terminal Six is that many people have failed to
recognize the masterpiece due to its location.
Terminal Six (as mentioned earlier) sits
right next to Eero Saarinen’s now protected landmark TWA Terminal
Five, often called a “living sculpture,” that gets most
of the attention of the public and preservationists.
We have an old saying here in America
that applies in this case:
“Sometimes, you can’t
see the forest for the trees.”
In this part of the airport, people are
looking at the Saarinen TWA building and missing IM Pei’s Sundrome
altogether.
The process has been helped along, by
allowing the Sundrome to fall into absolute disarray.
We must recognize that two architectural
geniuses created a legacy at a great international airport, and that
both structures need to be protected.
When this publication saved the Marine
Air Terminal (MAT) at LaGuardia Airport (and was recognized in 1986
by U.S. Secretary of Transportation and the U.S. National Historic Trust
in a Washington, D.C. Ceremony), the idea of utilizing a historic airport
building as a capstone or entrance to another facility was born.
Today, MAT is entrance to Delta Shuttle
ops at LGA.
At EWR, another early (1934) construction,
the exquisite Building One, was saved after we wrote a book about it
in 1978, and today it is the airport manager’s office.
Same thing goes for TWA (Terminal Five),
which will be utilized in some application when PANY & NJ finishes
the restoration project.
In the case of MAT LaGuardia and the Administration
Building at EWR, both structures had also been suggested for demolition
by the PANY & NJ at one time or another during the late 1960s and
early 1970s.
So ever watchful in the spirit of “what
goes around comes around,” this latest outrage against IM Pei’s
JFK Terminal Six is not a surprise.
However the saving of MAT LGA and Building
One at EWR has established precedence for adaptive reuse of older generation,
one-of-a-kind historic aviation buildings.
And I.M. Pei’s Terminal Six at JFK
is all of this.
Forgetting design significance for a moment,
Terminal Six is where Jet Blue was born.
It is an airline that nowadays experiences
huge success, delivering billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to
New York City.
Terminal Six at JFK is part of commercial
aviation heritage and was created with taxpayer money, so it actually
belongs to the people, not Port Authority, which only rents JFK Airport
from the City of New York.
Anyone who feels the fate of this building
can be left to destiny and to the right thing being done here, should
contact us at once because we also can secure you a good deal on a bridge
that spans the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Let's take the charge and deliver this
masterpiece to the next generation.
Thanks for any help.
Geoffrey Arend/Flossie
First Article IM
Pei JFK Masterpiece To Be Torn Down
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In
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Pictured are Garry Kemp, Managing Director,
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(l) present the jointly signed MOU to HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum,
Chairman & Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group.
