Design

Gifts for Avgeeks

Air Travel, Airlines, Airport shops, Aviation history, Design, Shopping, , , , ,

I’m gathering up a list of cool aviation-related products and handicrafts, just in case Santa reads StuckatTheAirport.com, or in case you’re looking for some cool gifts this holiday season.

Two for today:

Jerome Daksiewicz has a kickstarter campaign going to create a boxed set of his runway prints of 30 of the large hubs in the US and a screenprint illustrating all the runways.
 
runways

And Matthew Mahler at Skyebags has a refreshed line of items – a wallet, a tote and a Dopp kit – made from upcycled leather from old Delta Air Lines seats.

7_Skyebags Dopp Kit

Have a great avgeek gift to recommend? Send in your suggestions.

Fresh new amenities at SFO Airport

Airport shops, Design, Food, , ,

SFO HOLD ROOM

Boarding Are E at San Francisco International Airport’ Terminal 3 re-opens to passengers on Tuesday.

With the $138 million renovation comes a long list of fresh new amenities travelers will definitely notice and enjoy, including lounge seating that includes the iconic Fritz Hansen “egg” chairs, the airport’s second yoga room (with loaner mats), 375 power outlets, nine work stations and an interactive “infotainment” center with information about SFO and the city.

The new boarding area, which has 10 gates for United Airlines, has a 23-foot-tall window wall offering views of the airfield and the Bay Area, changing areas (with doors, full-length mirrors, sinks/counters, hooks and benches) in the restrooms and private areas with loungers where mothers can nurse their children.

The artwork includes the re-installation of five paintings from SFO’s art collection, “Sky” (above), which is a suspended light sculpture and “Spirogyrate,” an interactive art installation by Bay Area artist Eric Staller

SFO KIDS PLAY AREA

There are two pop-up stores mixed in with the dining and retail outlets:
Collector offers art from Bay Area artists and McEvoy Ranch presents locally-sourced olive oils and body care products.

Boarding Area E is connected post-security to the rest of Terminal 3, which is also connected to Concourse G of the International Terminal. So if you’re flying on United or any Star Alliance partner, you should be able to access these amenities.

Airspace Lounge at CLE; Bigger terminal for Myrtle Beach

Airports, Design, Food, Lounges, , ,

CLE AIRSPACE BAR

Day lounges accessible to anyone willing to pay the day fee are – thankfully – beginning to pop up at more and more airports.

The latest addition to the list: a new branch of the Airspace Lounge opened on Tuesday at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE), in the Main Terminal near the Concourse B security checkpoint.

At the CLE Airspace Lounge, entry pass prices will begin at $20 and hours will be from 5 am to 8:30 pm. Along with a comfortable place to work and relax, guests will be offered a range of complimentary food and beverage items and Wi-Fi.

The first Airspace Lounge opened at BWI Airport in 2011; a third Airspace Lounge is scheduled to open at JFK Terminal in May 2013.

And while CLE got a new lounge, on Tuesday South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach International Airport opened its new $118 million, 200,000-square-foot expansion, essentially doubling the airport’s size.

Myrtle Beach airport sign

In addition to six new gates, a new baggage screening system, additional parking and added cafes and chain outlets, the airport gained branches of two local restaurant favorites: Bubba’s Fish Shack and Nacho Hippo, a Tex Mex eatery.

Nacho Hippo Myrtle Beach

Alaska Airlines’ paint the plane contest

Design, liveries,

Alaska Airlines is having a Paint the Plane contest.

The airline has decided to paint a 737 with a Hawaiian theme and asked Hawaii schoolchildren to submit their ideas. These three designs have been chosen as finalists and Hawaiian residents are being asked to vote for a winner. The winning design will get painted on a plane and the winning artist will get a$ $5,000 scholarship and a trip for four to any Alaska Airlines destination.

Here are the finalists:

Sophia Cleek’s design

Izabella Hamilton’s design

Each of these designs looks pretty snazzy. If you’re a resident of Hawaii you can vote for your favorite here. The rest of us will just have to wait and see which design wins and wait to see the newly painted plane flying by.
Voting ends December 18, 2012. The winner will be announced January 10, 2013.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport opening date now March 2013

Airports, Design,

Things seem to be going from bad to worse at the yet-to-open Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport.

(Photo courtesy: Alexander Obst/Marion Schmieding/Berlin Brandenburg Airport)

After announcing that the planned June 3 opening date would be postponed for about three months, yesterday the airport’s supervisory board announced that the opening will now be pushed back until March 17, 2013.

The airport also announced the dismissal of the managing director for operations and construction and termination of the contract with the project management company for the airport.

On May 8, the airport company announced that the planned June 3 opening date for the new airport would be postponed due to a problem with fire safety systems at the airport. They thought they could solve that problem in three months by putting together an interim, partially automated system. But, evidently, that solution won’t work.

The plan now is to complete the fire safety and control system by December 2012 and open the airport once winter – and the potential for more headaches from adverse winter conditions – is over.

According to a statement released today,

“The Supervisory Board …followed the recommendation of the management and decided that all construction work should be completed first before the remaining necessary steps are taken that will allow the airport to commence operations. These steps entail the so-called impact and complex inspection by certified experts, subsequent inspection by the Building Standards Authority, further trial runs, designation of the airport site as a security area, and delivery of goods to storage facilities, shops and restaurants.”

Paper showers and other ways to stay fresh on the road

Bathrooms, Design, Travel Gadgets, , ,

Staying shower-fresh and stain-free when you’re on the road can be challenging.

Especially for air travelers who must snooze sitting up and squeeze a week’s worth of cleansing lotions and cosmetic potions into those tiny, zippered, see-through baggies.

Sponge-baths in public restroom sinks can be awkward so, for a story on msnbc.com, I rounded up an assortment of travel-sized products that may come in handy next time you or your favorite road warrior is creased, crinkled or stinky and away from home.

Paper showers and public restroom survival kits

Moist towelettes can be lifesavers when your hands – or the tray table and the armrests on the airplane – are sticky and full of germs. For bigger jobs, there’s the Paper Shower, a two-part packet with a wet side containing a paper towel dipped in alcohol-free soap and skin moisturizers and a second, super-absorbent towel on the dry side to remove what the wet portion leaves behind.

These days you can find all manner of travel-sized soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and hand sanitizers in drugstores but “at the request of several self-proclaimed germaphobes,” Paul Shrater said his company, Minimus.biz,  put together the Public Restroom Survival Kit,, which is stocked with travel-sized packets of toilet seat covers, disinfecting wipes, surface cleaners and toilet paper.

In the on-line cleaning supplies aisle Minimus.biz offers travel-sized odor eliminators and bed bug spray and, elsewhere on the site, Shrater finds that “Travel-sized Febreze and Lysol tend to be very popular.”

Lip-stick sized deodorants and no-brush tooth polish

Over at 3Floz.com (“For those who travel, those who are curious and those who can’t commit”) bestsellers among the personal care travel items include Beze Deodorettes, which are lipstick-sized mini-deodorants that fit into a purse or a pocket, and Supersmile Quikee, a pocket-sized no brush/no rinse tooth polish.

And for those who like to kick off their shoes on the airplane, but are self-conscious about the smell, there are Silver Linings, ultra-thin shoe inserts made with silver to absorb bacterial odor.

Of course, out on the road it’s not just people who get grimy. “For well-traveled smartphones we have cellphone cleaning wipes,” said Minimus.biz’s Shrater. “They’re called Celly Smellys and are a popular and interesting curiosity.”

Sneak peek at SFO T2 – part 2

Air Travel, Airports, Bathrooms, Design, Events, , , ,

Little things add up. And in renovating and rebuilding Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport, they’ve been paying attention to a lot of the little things.

SFO T2

In a open house for the community on April 9th (It’s free, but you’ll need a ticket) and when it opens to the flying public on April 14th, travelers flying in or out of SFO’s Terminal 2 will see live plants, loads of living room style furniture and lots of inviting, outlet-enhanced surfaces for getting work done.

SFO T2 Seating

SFO T2 work tables

There are some nice touches in the restrooms as well.

SFO T2 restroom

Stalls are deep (so there’s room for you and your carry-on in there) and out at the sinks, you’ll find outlets and those fast-working, Dyson hand-drying machines.

SFO Restroom T2

And for those who travel with their own water bottles, SFO T2 provides these easy-to-access refill stations.

SFO T2 Refill station

The sneak preview continues tomorrow….

In the meantime, take a look at the StuckatThe Airport.com preview of the artwork at SFO’s T2.

Souvenir Sunday at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport

Air Travel, Airport shops, Airports, Chapels, Design, Food, Hotels, Kids, Restaurants, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs, , , , ,

Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport serves more than 16 million passengers a year with 4 terminals and amenities that include a Sky Clinic, a chapel that hosts more than 200 weddings a year and hotels that range from the short stay “Rest and Fly” to the full-service Radisson Blu Sky City Hotel, which looks out over the transportation and marketplace hub between two terminals.

The Jumbo Stay sits on airport property, just off one of the taxi-ways, and is a unique hostel-style hotel built inside a converted 747.

The airport has more than 100 retail and dining venues, and on my recent 24-hour stay at the airport, I found plenty of items to feature on Souvenir Sunday, the day StuckatTheAirport.com highlights inexpensive, offbeat and “of” the city items you can buy at airports.

The choices included Swedish Herring gift packs and lots of other traditional food items;

and a wide variety of reindeer-inspired items and Lapland souvenirs.

But my choice for this week’s Souvenir Sunday favorites are the inexpensive, brightly-colored sporks and collapsible cups for sale at Terminal 5’s branch of Design Torget .

collapsible cups

If you find a great, inexpensive, “of” the city souvenir next time you’re Stuck at the Airport, please snap a photo and send it along. If your souvenir is featured on Souvenir Sunday, you’ll receive a fun air travel souvenir.

Souvenir Sunday: miniature books and travel-sized items

Air Travel, Art, Design, Food, Pets, Reading, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs, Space, Stuck at the Airport, Travel tips, , ,

Each Sunday here at StuckatTheAirport.com is Souvenir Sunday: a day to take a look at some of the fun, inexpensive souvenirs you can find at airports.

AYP Novelty Shop from UW Libraries, digital collection

This week: fun, inexpensive and tiny things to bring to the airport and on your trip.

A friend heading to India (lucky duck!) was seeking suggestions for three weeks-worth of titles to load onto a borrowed Kindle.

E-books are certainly the modern way to lighten your load, but in the past avid readers might have chosen to pack miniature books instead. Perhaps some of the books described in a recent blog post by a special collections cataloger at the Smithsonian Institution.

Diane Shaw writes that the Smithsonian’s collection includes more than 50 miniature books, each three inches or less, and calls them “practical as well as whimsical,” and “easily tucked inside a wallet or pocket.”

Miniature book at Smithsonian Institution

That sounds perfect for traveling.  Especially the tiny treasure titled Witty, Humorous and Merry Thoughts, which is in a metal locket-like case with a magnifying glass in the cover.

Miniature book at Smithsonian

Book photos courtesy Smithsonian Institution

But  why stop with books? Perhaps you already travel with a collapsible umbrella, a tiny alarm clock and TSA-friendly toiletries and cosmetics.

Here are few other items to consider:

Orikaso makes foldable, incredibly light and thin mugs, bowls and plates that, when not in use, are flat pieces of Greenpeace-endorsed polypropylene.

folding tableware

Bamboo markets several sizes of these collapsible Silicone travel bowls for pets.  But since the bowls are made from FDA-compliant materials and are PVC and BPA-free, I suspect they’d also come in handy for use by people too.

collapsible pet dog bowls

All sorts of games, from Mahjong and Monopoly to Candyland and Cribbage, can be found in travel-size versions.  And then there are some of the items for sale at sites like minimus.biz.

In addition to the classic travel-sized personal care, cosmetic and pharmacy items, the site carries single-serving food items and useful pocket-sized survival items such as mini-rolls of duct tape, light sticks and space-age emergency blankets.

emergency blannket

Have you found a great, must-have travel-sized item?  Please share your tips here.