Lambert-St. Louis International Airport

Travel Tidbits from an airport near you

Art, , , ,

Hope you had a restful holiday weekend. Here are some travel tidbits from airports you may be visiting soon. Or may want to.

First: check out this nice assortment of souvenir snow globes I spotted over the weekend at the Budapest Airport. Quality-wise, these are nicer than the snow globes we come across in many airports, and these had a nice assortment of local buildings to boot!

Will you be passing through St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) before November, 2019?

Courtesy STL Airport

If so, be sure to look for the exhibit sent over by the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) that highlights the special connection between plants and people through history. Plants and People: The Collections of the Missouri Botanical Garden is on display through November 10, 2019 in the Lambert Gallery near the C Concourse exit in Terminal 1 .

Here are some more snaps from the exhibit:

Courtesy STL Airport
Courtesy STL Airport

And, at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the SFO Museum has a new exhibition all about… Victorian pedestals.

Sounds like an odd topic, but we trust the SFO Museum to bring us exhibits that not only look intriguing but teach us something as well.

Here’s the pitch on the pedestals:

“Victorian pedestals, meant to showcase sculpture, are fascinating decorative art objects to behold. The most ornate pedestals were made in the United States during the Gilded Age—a time following the Civil War until the turn of the twentieth century, when the country experienced rapid economic growth. From the mid-1860s through the 1880s, in particular, collecting and displaying sculpture led to an increased demand for pedestals. Wealthy Victorians preferred elaborate furniture on a grand scale and richly ornamented rooms. Several pedestals displaying artistic objects might adorn the drawing room or parlor. Victorians selected pedestals that suited their tastes and living interiors. Pedestals, as a result, offer an intriguing look at the design styles popular at the time.“

Courtesy SFO Museum

The Style of Display: Victorian Pedestals is located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby at San Francisco International Airport through January 12, 2020.

Travel Tidbits from an airport near you

Exhibits, ground transporation, Mileage Programs, , , , ,

Boston Logan Airport – and others – are reminding travelers that Uber & Lyft driver are planning a strike today, which might make getting to and from this and other airports a bit more complicated.

Delta Air Lines announces a “Reclaim My Status” loyalty benefit for its customers. Nice.

And the newest exhibit at St. Louis Lambert International Airport is curated by the Griot Museum of Black History.

Batik Story Quilts: Yoruba and Other Cultural Proverbs, displays Batik tapestry quilts made by artist Tunde Odulande.  

The exhibit includes seven quilts:

“The Fairytale of the Blue Ghosts and Their Magical Spree,” Musicians Make Music While the Audience Makes Orchestration,” “Has Man Finally Arrived?,” “If you Don’t Know Where You Are Going, Any Road Will Do,” and “Our Heritage” are on display across from carousel 1 in the Terminal 1 Baggage Claim area.

“Sweet Mother” and “Mask of Peace” are on display near the A Concourse entrance. Batik Story Quilts: Yoruba and Other Cultural Proverbs is on display at STL through October 23, 2019 

Fresh art and music at SFO, STL and SEA airports

Art, , , , ,

Increasingly, airports are great places to see cool art and listen to great music.

Here are the latest offerings from San Francisco International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

Murmur No. 23 2006 Richard Barnes (b. 1953)

Murmur No. 23, by Richard Barnes. Courtey SFO Museum

The SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport is hosting an exhibition of photographs by Richard Barnes of starlings over Rome.

Barnes photographs the starlings during their winter migration from northern Europe to the Rome countryside. He waits till dusk, when the birds form dense cloud-like formations known as murmurations, and in his “Murmur” series Barnes has captured the starlings forming impressive aerial shapes.

Look for the Murmur exhibit pre-security on the Departures Level in Terminal 3 of the San Francisco International Airport.

 

Murmur No. 21 , by Richard Barnes. Courtesy SFO Museum

 

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has kicked off a new program, Celebrations at Sea-Tac, to honor holidays, traditions and cultures from the United Stations and global community.

The celebrations begin November with 1 for Dia de los Muertos, or the “Day of the Dead,” a Mexican holiday honoring and remembering loved ones.

Activities will include art installations, candy skull face painting and arts and crafts for children, food and beverage sampling and live performances.

And at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, the Art & Culture Program is hosting an exhibition by St. Louis artist Jeremy Rabus.

Titled “Livery,” the exhibition includes paintings inspired by the livery and components of commercial airlines. Look for this exhibit near the A Concourse entrance in Terminal 1.

Loran Naviagation by Jeremy Rabus; courtesy STL Airport

Fresh art at St. Louis Lambert Int’l Airport

Aviation history, Exhibits, Transportation,

 

A new exhibit at St. Louis Lambert International Airport focuses on the history of transportation.

Traveling through Time: Photographs from the collections of the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri St. Louis brings to the airport iconic black and white photos of the S.S. Admiral at the St. Louis waterfront, hot air balloon travel, some of St. Louis’ first female airline pilots, St. Louis’ Union Station, a boatman navigating the Mississippi River, and an early view of the Eads Bridge.

The six iconic images draw from the Mercantile’s special collections and are enlarged to nearly 7 ft. tall for easy viewing in light display boxes on the passageways between the lower level of Terminal 1 and Baggage Claim.

The Traveling through Time exhibition will be on display through September 2018.

(Photos courtesy of the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University 0f  Missouri – St. Louis. )

See more airport, airline and travel-related tidbits on StuckatTheAirport.com.

New name for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport

Airports, History,

STL_TradingCard_FRONT

Looks like Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is getting a new name.

The St. Louis Airport Commission has voted on it and, if approved by the St. Louis Board of Alderman, the new name of the city’s airport will be St. Louis – Lambert International Airport.

On the face of it, not a huge change, but a meaningful one for many people in the city because the current ‘Lambert’ in the front end of the airport’s name is meant to honor Albert Bond Lambert, who learned to fly with the Wright Brothers and founded the airport.

“This effort is about aligning the Airport with our city and becoming more unified with the brand and marketing power of the St. Louis region,” said Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge in a statement released by the airport. “We’ve received a lot feedback in the last few weeks that highlighted the support of our effort to put St. Louis first.”

An airport working group originally proposed “St. Louis International Airport at Lambert Field” for the new name, but the Commissioners amended the proposed name and approved “St. Louis-Lambert International Airport.”

“We’ve spent the last few weeks talking with relatives of the Albert Bond Lambert and heard how important it was that Lambert still have a vital position in the airport’s name,” said Hamm-Niebruegge.

The new name does that and puts STL more on par with major airports which are geographically named.

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport ready for Mardi Gras

Events, Holidays,

No time to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras? You could go instead to St. Louis.

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is ready to welcome the thousands of visitors expected to visit St. Louis for the annual Historic Soulard Mardi Gras celebration.

For the third year, the airport is hosting an exhibit of St. Louis Mardi Gras posters dating back to 1982. The month-long exhibit is in the Terminal 1 Baggage Claim and in the Terminal 2 ticketing lobby.

February 17, the day prior to the River City Casino Grand Parade, will be Mardi Gras Day at the airport, so don’t be surprised to find airport employees in Mardi Gras garb and to hear live music in both terminals.

The River City Casino Grand Parade takes place on February 18. The city’s month-long calendar of Mardi Gras events wraps up with the Lumiere Place Light Up the Night Fat Tuesday Parade in downtown St. Louis on February 21. For more information see: www.mardigrasinc.com.

Going on the go: bathroom news

Bathrooms, , ,

Although it may be a year before Lambert-St. Louis International Airport can repair Concourse C, which was heavily damaged in a tornado on April 22, 2011, the airport is moving forward with much-needed, scheduled upgrades in the Airport Experience Program.

And right now, airport officials are flushed with pride over some newly renovated restrooms.

All restrooms in Concourse A, Concourse C and Terminal 1 will eventually get renovated, and let’s hope they all look as lovely as the fresh set bathrooms (Men’s, Women’s and a Family Assist) featuring bright white counters, new terrazzo flooring and colorful walls that just opened on Concourse A (near gate 8).

And while we’re talking bathrooms… take a look at The Bathroom Diaries , Mary Ann Racin’s directory of more than 47,000 public restrooms, with a color-coded key for toilet cleanliness and amenities such as changing tables.

Racin says she’s recently overhauled the site, but is still working on some features and functionality and, of course, an iPhone app.

They didn’t call him Lucky Lindy for nothing

Airplanes, Weather, , , , , ,

Talk about luck.

For more than 30 years Charles Lindbergh’s 1932 Monocoupe D-145 hovered over the Concourse C checkpoint at Lambert-St Louis International Airport (STL).

But just last month, to make way for the relocation of that checkpoint, the plane was lowered to the floor, removed from the airport and put in storage at Missouri’s Mount Vernon Municipal Airport.

According to the owner of the company that moved the plane, “Had it still been inside the St. Louis airport when the tornado blew through last Friday, the plane would have taken a direct hit.”

Lucky, right?

That’s what the folks at the Missouri Historical Society are probably thinking. The organization received the plane from Lindbergh back in 1940 and planned to have it restored and put on display at the Mount Vernon Airport while renovations were underway at Lambert.

The timeline for restoring and returning the plane to Lambert airport may be altered a bit by the aftermath of the tornado, but at least the plane is safe and still around.

Tornado closes Lambert-St. Louis Airport indefinitely

Air Travel, Airplanes, Aviation history, Weather, ,

We’ll be getting more details today, but Friday night, April 22nd, an apparent tornado ripped through the St. Louis area and caused so much damage at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport that the airport is now closed indefinitely while they figure out what to do.

Here’s a story from the local TV news station KMOV:

 

Airport spokespeople say at least four people were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries and that:

“At this time, it appears that Terminal 1 and Concourse C suffered the most damage from the storm with high winds that blew out up to 50 percent of windows and caused roof damage as well.  There is also considerable storm damage at the entrances of the airport and along roadways.”

KMOV has also posted a gallery of photos showing what the area looked like after the tornado:

See the rest of the KMOV STL airport tornado damage photo gallery.

The damage is heartbreaking. Especially for those who have been looking forward to all the new features and amenities that were being put in place for a major restoration project.

Let’s hope the Lindbergh 1934 Monocoupe D-145 is safe. Charles Lindbergh’s personal plane hovered over the STL Concourse C checkpoint for 30 years and just last month was lowered and moved to the Mt. Vernon Municipal Airport to make way for a concourse relocation project. The plane is owned by the Missouri History Museum and is scheduled to return to STL when renovations there are complete.

Museum Monday: art inspired by Lambert –St. Louis International Airport

Air Travel, Architecture, Exhibits, , ,

On StuckatTheAirport.com, I often make note of an inspiring museum-quality exhibition that has made its way to an airport.

Today, I’m pleased to point you to a museum exhibition that has been inspired by an airport.

St. Louis Art museum

Ian Monroe's Arc

 

The Saint Louis Art Museum is showing an exhibition of work by Ian Monroe that takes its cue from the architecture and history of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport terminal.  The building was designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers.

Ian Monroe

 

Currents 105: Ian Monroe will be on view in Gallery 338 at the Saint Louis Art Museum through July 31, 2011. Even better: admission to the Saint Louis Art Museum is free.

(Images courtesy Haunch of Venison and Ian Monroe © Ian Monroe)