Architecture

Pittsburgh Airport getting a swank makeover

February 20, 2019Harriet BaskasAirport Terminals, Architectureairport terminal design, PIT Airport, Pittsburgh International Airport, stuck at the airport

Pittsburgh International Airport is getting a $1.1 billion makeover that includes a new terminal with 51-gates, a modern check-in concourse and a new bag-claim system.

The pictures look so appealing that when the new terminal opens in 2023, they may have to seriously consider trading in the PIT airport code for something, well, prettier.

The new airport terminal will be built next to PIT’s current airside facility, between Concourses C and D, and is designed by award-winning architect Luis Vidal, who designed Heathrow Airport’s T2, and by San Francisco-based Gensler.

While some things may change as the project gets underway, airport officials say the new terminal building will have an emphasis on sustainability, with both indoor and outdoor green plazas and gathering spaces.

The new terminal brings together check-in, ticketing, security and baggage operations into one facility, with a separate level for departing and arriving passengers. There will also be an expanded TSA checkpoint, shorter walking distances and additional space for artwork, concessions and other amenities.

“This new terminal, inspired by the beauty, tech renaissance and people of our region will integrate seamlessly into the great design of the existing Airside Terminal,” said Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis. “In considering this design, we looked at function first, then form, to construct a building that will be both iconic, practical and affordable and that can be easily adapted as the technology and transportation needs of our community change.”

Let’s just hope PIT keeps the dinosaur, the Calder mobile, the shrine to Mister Rogers and the other amenities that make PIT a bit quirky and endearing.

(All photos courtesy of Pittsburgh International Airport)

World’s Best Airport: getting better

June 8, 2017Harriet BaskasAirport Terminals, Airports, Architecture, family travelChangi Airport, Jewel, World's tallest indoor waterfall, world's tallest waterfall

Proclaimed “World’s Best Airport” for five years in a row, Singapore’s Changi Airport is where you want to be if you’re ever going to be stuck at an airport.

There are shops, restaurants and attractions galore, but once the Jewel mixed-use complex gets built in the center of the airport, Changi will become even more of a destination all its own.

Scheduled to be completed in early 2019, Jewel will boast the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, a five-story garden filled with thousands of trees, plants, ferns and shrubs, a branch of the YOTEL hotel chain, shops, restaurants and a 164-foot-long Canopy Bridge with some glass flooring to offer great views of the waterfall and other attractions.

This week, we’ve learned that the attractions planned for Canopy Park (on level five) will include Sky Nets, Canopy Mazes, and Discovery Slides as well as well as an open play area called Foggy Bowls, where kids will get to wander through mists “as though walking among clouds.”

Photo Credits: Jewel Changi Airport Devt.

In progress: LAX new Midfield Satellite Concourse

February 28, 2017Harriet BaskasArchitectureairport construction, LAX, Los Angeles International Airport

You can’t say they’re not trying.

Ground has been broken phase one of the new Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) at Los Angeles International Airport.

When completed, sometime in late 2019, the $1.6-billion, five-level facility and an associated new baggage system will add 12 new gates, more amenities and greater flexibility for parking aircraft.

Designed as an extension of the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT), the new 750,000-square-foot concourse will be located west of TBIT (the Tom Bradley International Terminal) and connected by a 1,000-foot-long underground pedestrian tunnel with moving walkways. Buses will also be used to transport passengers between the concourse and other terminals.

Two of the new gates will accommodate the larger Airbus 380 and Boeing 747-8 jets, with the remaining 10 gates accommodating Boeing 777s and 787s, and the Airbus 330s and 350s.

Among a wide range of other new features, the new midfield terminal will be ‘smart’.

According to LAX, flight information displays will include scanners that allow passengers to receive personalized maps on their boarding passes. Beacon technology will also be in place and will work with a new LAX app on smartphones to help passengers find their way around the concourse and find the concessions and amenities they are interested in – and to help LAX track how passengers use the concourse features.

And, looking forward, LAX says the concourse is being built with future technology enhancements in mind, including automated boarding gates that make use of biometrics, such as facial geometry, fingerprints or iris scanning for identification.

*All images courtesy Corgan in association with Gensler.

More moving walkways

September 26, 2016Harriet BaskasArchitectureairport moving walkways, Otis Elevator Company

I’ve been having a little too much fun researching the history of moving walkways for my next ‘At the Airport’ column on USA TODAY.

The column should post shortly, but in the meantime, here are couple of great images from 1955 that the Otis Elevator Company – which still has a patent on the term Travl-O-Lator – shared for the story:

More on being old in an airport

August 25, 2016Harriet BaskasArchitectureaging suit, airport design, universal design

Here’s a bit more on my experience walking around Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in an ‘aging suit,’ with architects from Corgan as my guides.

The suit, developed in Germany and also referred to as a GERT (or Gerontological Test suit), is a collection of accessories that get attached to different areas of the body to temporarily add impairments that simulate being old – up to 30 years older than you are.

I wore spongy overshoes that made it hard to know when my feet were actually touching the floor; knee and elbow wraps, and a neck brace, to limit my movement and simulate joint stiffness; earmuffs to lower my hearing by about 10 dB; and blurred goggles to reduce my vision.

To make it even hard to walk around the airport, Michael Steiner, a senior associate at Corgan, added a heavy padded vest to my outfit, which brought the ensemble’s weight to somewhere around 30 pounds.

Wearing all that, I headed out into the terminal to experience being ‘old in an airport.’

The blurry goggles made it difficult to see which floor number to push in the elevator.
The spongy shoes made it difficult to know where I was stepping, especially when it came time to get on and off the escalator.

At baggage claim it was really difficult to lean over, grab my test suitcase and pull it up over the lip of the metal wall.

My walk through the airport was escorted, but in this age of “If you see something, say something,” here I was wearing a strange outfit that either made me look like I’d been an accident – or was out to hurt someone else – but no one approached me either to find out what I was up to – or to offer help.

True, I couldn’t quite see or hear other people with those decibel-reducing earmuffs and fuzzy goggles on, but that was exactly the point of putting the suit on in the first place, said Corgan’s Michael Steiner,

“An airport is an incredibly chaotic and busy place, even for someone who is perfectly healthy,” he said, “Take away some of the sensory inputs such as sight, hearing and mobility and couple those with a busy environment and you’ll get a different viewpoint of how someone decides to move through the space to get where they need to go.”

Or decides that they won’t bother to try to make their way through the airport at all.

(See my At the Airport column on this experience on USA TODAY)

Taking an airport walk as an old person

August 23, 2016Harriet BaskasArchitecture, Designaging, airport design, Corgan, mobility issues

Monday’s assignment was another one for the books: go the airport, meet a couple of guys from the Dallas-based Corgan architecture and design firm, let them outfit me in a weighted vest, knee pads, padded shoes and assorted other items that simulate being 30 years older than I am, and take a walk.

The goal? To experience the challenges of moving through a busy, crowded airport without the pep, eyesight and navigational fearlessness of a much younger person.

I’m writing up the details of this educational and exhausting day for tomorrow’s At the Airport column on USA TODAY, but here’s a pic of me trying to get a suitcase up and over the lip of a bag claim carousel.

No laughing please…

Pop-up seating at PHL Airport

May 27, 2016Harriet BaskasArchitecture, Artpallet seating, Philadelphia International Airport, pop-up art

This summer there’s a fun new seating area at Philadelphia International Airport

Located in Terminal A-East, PHL’s new pop-up seating area is made from recycled wooden pallets and includes handmade pallet seating, planted pallet walls and a book exchange.

The urban garden area offers passengers some unique recycling ideas – and with a “Take One – Leave One” section, encourages travelers to relax and read a book.

A new LaGuardia Airport? It will happen.

July 27, 2015Harriet BaskasAirports, Architecture, Aviation history, History, Hotelsairport makeover, LaGuardia Airport

On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the long-awaited plan for the promised makeover of LaGuardia Airport, which U.S. vice-president Joe Biden likened to one found in “some Third World country.”

The make-over of the airport will be massive: it will cost at least $4 billion and include one unified terminal building “designed so passengers intuitively understand the airport’s layout,” an automated tram, business and conference center capabilities, better roadways and public transportation to and from the airport, better taxiways for the airplanes, a cell phone lot, a consolidated rental car center, a boutique hotel and the services, dining and shopping options now offered by first-class airports elsewhere.

A tall order? Sure, you betcha’. But something has to be done.

Here’s a video that details the design that just might make you believe it will happen.

And here’s a link to the full report.

No mention of bringing back the Observation Deck or the Sky Bar.

Cool, quirky airport carpets

January 22, 2015Harriet BaskasAirports, Architecture, Fun Stuffairport carpets, Denver International Airport, PDX Airport Carpet, PHX Airport, travel

2_PDX_Foot-forward selfies with the PDX carpet are very popular at Portland Int'l Airport

Foot-forward selfies with the carpet are popular at PDX.

It’s usually a bit of an inconvenience, but not that big a deal, when an airport changes out the carpeting in the terminals.

But because the current carpet at Portland International Airport has become a social media sensation, all manner of media will be on hand Friday when construction crews begin removing the existing carpet at PDX and preparing the floor for the installation of 13 acres of new carpet—enough to cover nearly 10 football fields.

6__PDX_ A sample of the new carpet design, scheduled to begin being installed over the next year.

This is what the new PDX carpet will look like.

Here’s the story of the PDX carpet and a round-of of some quirky airport carpets found at other airports around the country that I put together for my “At the Airport” column on USA Today.

Installed in the late 1980s, the old PDX carpet sports a geometric pattern inspired by the airport’s intersecting north-south runways and was for years an ignored part of the airport décor.

But then Portland began celebrating its core weirdness, social media became the big thing, and the rug became a hip symbol of home celebrated on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and with souvenirs ranging from socks, caps and water bottles to T-shirts, mugs, tote bags and bike helmets.

Carpet-inspired art and ale followed: Nancy Wilkins’s 11-foot by 16-foot collage, made of pieces of PDX carpet and titled “Carpet Diem!” was recently installed at the airport and Oregon-based Rogue Ales & Spirits just introduced PDX Carpet IPA.

PDX isn’t the only airport to forgo tile, terrazzo or other hard flooring in favor of rugs more difficult to maintain, but worth a second look.

When it was time to order 10.5 acres of new carpeting for its three terminals, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport looked for something that would hold up to high foot traffic and repeated cleaning, and be easily recycled when it came time for replacement.

In 2005, PHX got all that (at the cost of $34.66 per square yard) plus a cool, custom pattern that looks like an aircraft on a radar screen.

In the pedestrian walkway between Terminal A and the parking garage at Sacramento International Airport, travelers walk across the 150-foot-long “Flying Carpet” created by artist Seyed Alavi. Installed in 2005, the woven, woolen carpet portrays a digital, aerial image of about 50 miles of the Sacramento River and nearby farm fields and orchards.

Part of an “Art in Public Places” project, the commission for SMF’s Flying Carpet included a duplicate version of the rug that has been in storage.

There are no socks, caps, beer or other official souvenirs (yet) bearing the carpet patterns from Phoenix Sky Harbor or Sacramento International Airports, but visitors regularly post images of the carpets on social media.

With subtle musical notes and musical instruments throughout, the carpet at Nashville International Airport celebrates Music City.

Denver International Airport recently installed 42,000 square yards of new carpeting in Concourse B and 25,000 square yards of new carpeting in Concourse C, at a cost of $2.5 million and $1.7 million respectively. The pattern isn’t aviation-themed, but casually references rivers and streams (in the walking areas) and (in the seating areas) things passengers often see out the windows at DEN: rain and snow.

The pattern in the 33 acres of teal and white carpeting at Orlando International Airport is quite simple but, along with plenty of light, water and live landscaping, is in keeping with the goal of creating an environment that is comfortable, people-friendly.

Meanwhile, back at Portland International Airport, the old carpet will be gone, but not forgotten: a limited number of 1,000 square yard sections of the old carpet will be made available to winning applicants who will likely sell or give it away small bits of the carpet to others.

Greetings from Victoria, B.C.

October 26, 2014Harriet BaskasAirport shops, Airports, Architecture, ArtB.C., Kenmore Air, seaplanes, travel, Victoria, Victoria International Airport

These flowers welcome travelers at B.C.’s Victoria International Airport. Courtesy of the airport.

Two airport firsts for me this weekend on a very short trip to Canada.

I took my first Kenmore Air seaplane ride from Seattle to Victoria, B.C. and I finally had a chance to visit Victoria International Airport.

I actually took two seaplane rides.

The first flight from Seattle to Victoria had to turn around due to low visibility and return to Kenmore Air’s Lake Union base. While some passengers (there were five of us on board – plus one tiny dog) rushed off to find alternate transportation to Victoria, I considered myself lucky to have gotten a bonus scenic tour and settled in to wait for the next flight.

Clearing customs on arrival at the seaplane terminal in Victoria, B.C. was incredibly easy: just two Canada Border Services Agency employees in a shack on the dock asking each passenger if they had fruits and vegetables with them and if they’ve been near anyone with Ebola. The entire plane was processed in two minutes.

The Victoria Seaplane Terminal is tiny, but packed with amenities that include free Wi-Fi and complimentary computer workstations, newspapers, coffee, fruit and morning pastries.

Then it was on to Victoria International Airport (YYJ), about 30 minutes away, for a tour.

The airport serves about 1.5 million passengers a year and besides being on lovely Vancouver Island, it has a lot going for it. Here are snaps from my tour:

Inside the terminal, the foliage is live and the color palette for the finishes draw inspiration from “At Beacon Hill Park,” a painting by the well-known Victoria artist Emily Carr.

Spinnakers On the Fly, an airport outpost of a popular local gastropub, has 12 Spinnakers beers on tap, including one called, Departures,’ brewed just for the airport

The gift shop sells lots of locally-made Roger’s Chocolates and a wide assortment of handmade gift items.

In addition to a play area for kids, an art-filled indoor observation deck, pet relief areas, workstations and bike assembly stations with loaner tools, the airport has several water fountains with water bottle re-fill attachments and counters that keep track of how many plastic bottles are being kept out of landfills.

Surrounding the airport is the Flight Path – an almost 6-mile biking and hiking path with informational signs about the landmarks and history of the area along the way such as Hospital Hill, once the site of medical facilities for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

An interactive map of the Flight Path includes the historical information listed on each sign along the path.