LaGuardia Marine Air Terminal
In Danger

     As you read this, we learn that the pioneering Marine Air Terminal (MAT) at LaGuardia Airport, where all scheduled international aviation in New York City took off in 1940, that we as an air cargo publication, if you can believe it, were miraculously lucky enough to save from destruction in 1980, well, the same Marine Air Terminal, i.e. the building that attained Landmark Preservation status, could be in immediate danger of being thoughtlessly altered out of existence by the airport operator The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
     This plan, as we read their presser if enacted, endangers the most historically important commercial aviation structure in The United States of America, dating back to the beginnings of international aviation serving our country’s greatest metropolis New York City.
     Here is what the presser states, reiterating it twice:

     “The plan calls for replacing the 85-year-old Terminal A to meet demand and continued passenger growth while respecting the building rotunda's landmark status.
     “A top-to-bottom rebuilding of Terminal A at LaGuardia while preserving the landmark rotunda.”

     MAT is comprised of a central circular core of two stories with an attic from which a rectangular entrance pavilion and two symmetrically opposed one-story wings project.
     The presser clearly states the plan is to save the central core and erase the rest of the building?
     Press Release is clear and dangerous given Port Authority history at MAT since 1948.
     We are grateful for the opportunity to remind everyone of what the LaGuardia Airport’s operator inflicted upon this pioneering facility in 1952.
     During 1940-42, Artist James Brooks as part of the WPA Federal Arts program painted the mural titled “Flight” on the upper walls of the MAT lobby. ‘Flight” at 237.5 circular and 12 feet high was the largest work of the WPA program.
     “Flight”, if you can believe it, was thoughtlessly erased out of the picture in an airport clean-up program in 1952 during the Senator Eugene McCarthy communist witch-hunt, when artists from Hollywood to public arts programs were under scrutiny.
     The Port Authority in 1952-3 in that clean-up program painted over and covered the entire mural with drab grey wall paint.
     “Flight” remained covered and forgotten, a giant blank wall in a public space and it stayed that way for nearly three decades when, as Air Cargo News, we discovered LaGuardia’s Hidden Art Treasure and devised a plan to bring it back.
     Now in 2025, it appears, if we read their presser correctly, the Port Authority wants to alter and change the MAT again, this time from the outside, after they had once upon a time, changed it from the inside out when they erased “Flight” from the upper Rotunda walls. 
     Keeping the entire MAT intact, observation decks and all, as it was built in 1939 is in our view essential, and matters to aviation history for one simple reason; here after World War II the MAT served every international flag airline that launched ongoing scheduled aerial service as the one and only scheduled way in and out of the world’s greatest city.
     MAT was the USA connection to Europe from 1940 until the opening of Idlewild Airport, (now JFK International) in 1948.
     Airlines from around the world serving New York City and thus the United States of America, operated via this tiny art-deco jewel of a building.
BOAC (now British Airways/IAG), Air France, Trans World Airlines, SAS (Scandinavian), American Overseas Airways, Pan American and countless others all began their operations here.
     Designers of MAT were Delano and Aldrich who also created most of the original LaGuardia Airport that opened in 1939.
     Worth noting, a few years prior to their LaGuardia Airport effort Delano and Aldrich designed and built the Pan Am Flying boat base at Dinner Key-Coconut Grove, Florida that opened in 1936.
     Today that Dinner Key Building, sister to the MAT at LGA, remains in full use intact, whilst serving the City of Miami as Miami City Hall.
     I really cannot understand why Italians are proud of their Michelangelo’s and Botticelli’s, the Dutch are proud of their Rembrandt's and Van Gogh's, the French are proud of their impressionists, the Russians are proud of their war-and-peace writers and I could continue, whilst we Americans cannot be proud of having given commercial aviation to the world and celebrate its creation by preserving the integrity of our historical heritage, buildings and all, as unique landmarks of an era.
     What are we going to tell our descendants?
     “Around this rush-hour-relief-bus-service-and cab stand Uber rotunda with its big picture of aviation created here in 1940-42, once  stood a great building that elevated the experience of commercial aviation at the end of the second millennium.
     “Lucky we saved the ‘Flight’ Mural, a great example of a unique modernist work of art.
     “We are also very proud to still have a digital record and an Ai file of activity of the original MAT, that you can download onto your device.”
Geoffrey Arend

TO OUR READERS, WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE WORLD, PLEASE HELP US TO SAVE THE MARINE AIR TERMINAL. YOU CAN APPEAR IN PERSON, ZOOM IN OR SUBMIT YOUR COMMENTS ONLINE.

Please call (212) 435-7000  to leave a message with your Opposition to the Marine Air Terminal Renovation, or
Online Feedback submission

To ensure the public has ample opportunity to share its views, six public hearings have been scheduled. Members of the public are encouraged to attend the hearings below in person or virtually or submit comments through the Port Authority website by Dec. 15: 

Dec. 2, 9 a.m.— 2 Montgomery St., 3rd floor, Jersey City, N.J. (with virtual option)
Dec. 3, 10 a.m. — John F. Kennedy International Airport Bldg. 14, 14 S. Service Rd., Jamaica,
Dec. 3, 7 p.m. — 4 World Trade Center, 150 Greenwich St., 23rd floor, New York, N.Y. (with virtual option)
Dec. 4, 7 p.m. — Port Authority Elizabeth Outreach Office, 79 W. Jersey St., Elizabeth, NJ
Dec. 8, 7 p.m. — Hilton Hasbrouck Heights, 650 Terrace Ave., Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.
Dec. 9, 7 p.m. Williamson Theatre at the College of Staten Island, 2800 Victory Blvd., Staten
Public comments can also be made at the December meeting of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners, scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 18, at 2 Montgomery Street, Jersey City, N.J.