New York's JFK Airport is going to build a swanky new hotel inside its vacant TWA Terminal
According to Curbed NYC, New York City governor Andrew Cuomo revealed plans to turn the terminal into the TWA Flight Center Hotel, complete with 505 rooms, anywhere between six and eight restaurants, 40,000 square feet of event space, and a 10,000 square-foot observation deck.
The plans are are the result of a public-private partnership between MCR Development, JetBlue, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, however the actual building of the hotel will be privately funded.
The project will cost $265 million and will begin next year. The opening date is set for 2018.
Tyler Morse, the CEO of MCR Development, said "the TWA Flight Center Hotel will celebrate and preserve Eero Saarinen's masterpiece, returning the landmark to its original glory and reopening it to the public."
The hotel won't completely take over the terminal though. An announcement released about the project says the hotel will stand behind the terminal and that it will be "designed to defer to the landmark."
The project also includes plans to open a museum that will focus on the history of TWA, the Jet Age, and the Mid-century Modern design movement.
The terminal was originally built in 1962 by architect Eero Saarinen. According to Curbed, Saarinen was dead when the terminal was completed, making it the last project he ever worked on.
The terminal is truly a relic from the golden age of flying, when airline travel first became affordable to those outside of the upper class.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the terminal has been closed for the past 14 years, due to the fact that it couldn't handle modern airplanes. The closing of the terminal also coincided with TWA going out of business, after it was bought by American Airlines in 2001.
In 1994 the terminal was officially named a New York City landmark. It then earned a spot in the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, and was last restored three years later in 2008.
Here are some photos of what the terminal looks like today.
