The TWA Flight Center opened in 1962 at Idlewild airport; which was renamed JFK airport as a tribute to John F. Kennedy following his assassination. It was designed for TWA by the Finnish born, American architect Eero Saarinen. The design straddles Futurist, Neo-futurist Googie, and fantastic architectural styles. It was declared a New York City landmark in 1994, and in 2005 the terminal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
TWA stood empty for years as time passed, but in recent years a bold plan was hatched to turn it into a luxury hotel. Finally, the renovation construction began in December of 2016.
As luck would have it, opening day for the newly restored hotel was May 15th, 2019, and our team was scheduled to arrive at JFK for a multi-day production on the 18th, making us some of the first guests to stay on the property. The hotel was excellent, our crew settled in happily, and we all called it home for the duration of our project.
There were the typical opening day hiccups you’d expect in a hotel of this magnitude, but all was easily overlooked and we look back on this project fondly as a magical week staying in this awesome piece of history.
