The Municipal Art Society proposes the addition of new halls and gates to Saarinen’s building, an extension which would involve the demolition of a nearby building which housed the National Airlines Sundrome, a less famous but still important building. A solution which – according to Frank Sanchis III, executive director of the company – would mean being able to maintain Saarinen’s ideas regarding the entrance and view. “For a building like this to be viable – viable both philosophically and frankly, economically – it has to have airline use”. For their part the airport authorities, alongside a declaration of a firm intention to defend Terminal 5 (the main building), also declare that the terminal “is inadequate to meet passenger, baggage and security standards required for contemporary aviation operations”.
The design they are proposing consists in the building of a new large C shaped terminal alongside Saarinen’s building. The number of gates would increase from 37 to 51 but terminal 5 would be excluded, both physically and visually, from the view of the aeroplanes and the passageways. The current situation is static – no airline has yet come forward to request the terminal after American Airlines abandoned it in January.
