A friend of mine (and a former poster here) was just there a few weeks ago. In addition to the hotel, they’ve brought in a restored Lockheed Constellation and use it as a cocktail bar.
I would love to check it out, maybe even stay there. I’m an aviation and architecture geek, but I’m not sure I’m geeky enough to go to a city just to visit the airport.
Not all airports are alike, although the departure terminals in major international airports tend to be the same.
My fave ever airport so far is U-Tapau flying from Pattaya in Thailand to various destinations. Just four boarding lounges, a cafe and fuck-all duty-free shit to wade through. Oh, and they have a smoking area outside WITH COMFY CHAIRS.
Which is how it’s done for example in BCN, although without doors: just frames. I’ve seen the “round wall” thing in a couple of the larger highway rest stops in France. It wasn’t particularly convenient for people toting kids or large luggage since the same places also had the “pay before going in” rotating poles arrangement, which really slows things down and clearly wasn’t designed by anybody who uses a wheelchair, crutches or has two toddlers.
This is probably more suited to IMHO than GQ. Please note that this thread was started in 2011.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
NOW you tell us!
Since I fly for a living I pass through many, many airports. I think what’s been said so far mostly covers it - there’s a lot of similarity, but also a lot of places that have their own feel and look.
What I do notice is extremely standard wherever I’ve been is, there are always TVs on. Everywhere. They’re inescapable in airports, even the private jet terminals I work from. It’s like someone decided CNN or whatever has to be on at all times, and the volume has to be on. It drives me crazy, and if I have the time I’ll walk a long way to find a quiet area. But as I walk from gate to gate it’s like there’s continual overlap of TVs.
I wish that would go away. Music would be OK by me. But what’s wrong with a public space that doesn’t bombard us with TV? Especially when many of us have the technology in our pocket if we do want to sit down and watch?
I suspect someone, somewhere thinks having TV always on makes it look like the place is “happening”, and that silence or even just music would make people think airports aren’t exciting or something.
I wonder if someone, somewhere is getting paid by CNN to have the damn TVs on all the time. No one really watches the damn things especially these days when you can bring your own stuff with headphones.
OK, so what rounded wall? I assume I will immediately recognize this once I see a picture, but I have been in many airports and can’t quite picture what you are saying.
Edit: This is a pretty typical bathroom entrance at an airport as far as I know.
Aside from the TVs everywhere, what annoys me are the overhead announcements for every gate in the terminal, if not the whole airport. So when I’m at my gate, I really don’t need to know that the flight at a gate a quarter mile away is ready to board.
It’s the opposite. In 58 airports across the US, the airport managers pay CNN. From the CNN Airport media kit: “Take advantage of CNN’s technical expertise, system design experience, buying power and vendor relationships to put together a top notch television network in your airport.”
Rare in Western Europe. Screens with flight and airport information, yes. Noise, yes, from people. Actual TVs, no. I’ve only seen them in a few airport restaurants; usually American-themed ones, and not even all of those.
It’s a lot easier to list all gates at once than to send out different video signals depending on where the monitor is.
I was referring to the often very loud audio announcements via the PA system. The monitors showing arrivals and departures (including gate information) don’t bother me at all.
Especially when you’re about to be sitting in a tiny airplane seat for several hours.
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But ah, such fun watching the people who wandered off from that gate do that “OMG” sprint across the concourse dragging along their rollaboards, laptop bags, and family members, dropping the ocassional loose shoe, latte cup or child…
The ones I hear are for gates in the general vicinity, or gate change announcements which make sense to play near the original gate. I can usually see people queuing up after the boarding announcement.
More to the point, I’d love to visit NYC for many reasons, but I sure as hell wouldn’t want to stay at JFK.
Since this thread was revived, you may be happy to hear that CNN Airport ended about six months ago.
I know I’m replying to a two year old post, but I always assumed that was for the benefit of people who might have wandered away from the gate to use the restroom, or buy a snack, or whatever. It’s their cue to get their ass back to the gate, because their flight is about to board.
Back to the OP, I can’t find the article right now, but I read an article a year or two ago about how one overreaching principle of airport terminal design is making it obvious where people should go with a minimal amount of signage. Because when people see a sign, they tend to pause momentarily to read it, and that gums up the flow of traffic. So architects try to design terminals such that there’s one clear, obvious path from check-in to security to the gates.
Hard trivia question: What percentage of the world’s airports are in the US?
Airports are very functional buildings. There are a lot of things they have to do - allow safe takeoff and landing, load and unload passengers and cargo, keep the public and employees safe through security, observation and documents, follow international and local laws, communicate changing information, provide parking and ground transportation, allow for connections, etc.
There are also a lot of things they like to do: encourage high-rent commercial activity, feed people, help pass long waits, have nice if expensive amenity options, have more private areas, charge inflated prices, etc.
They look alike since it takes a lot of space to have runways which confirm to specific safety standards, some building designs are more efficient at fulfilling the above roles, etc.
I do not agree airports tend to be that much alike. Architecture, geography, local flavours, preferences do differ. But I would prefer much more diverse duty free shops and not the large and humdrum partial monopoly.
