Engineer of Record for the extensive redevelopment of the highly acoustically rated facade on the iconic, Landmarked TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York City.
Originally designed by Eero Saarinen as a sculptural element in an open space, the TWA Flight Center located at JFK Airport in New York City was a major hub for Transworld Airlines. However, in 2001 the Flight Center was decommissioned because of its inability to support the size of modern airplanes.
After two decades of abandonment, the landmarked Flight Center has been turned into a hotel, including a full renovation of its interior. Two new multi-storey curved hotel guest room buildings that cup the Flight Center in a radial pattern have also been added. Located on each of the two guest room buildings are two, 7-storey curtain wall systems for which EOC Engineers were the Engineer of Record.
The curtain systems have been designed with panels approximately 9’-8” high x 4’ wide, varying slighting in either a convex or concave pattern, and are designed to accentuate the vertical in keeping with the original Saarinen design. Special consideration was placed on the breaks in vertical mullions which are concealed at each floor, lending a continuous appearance from ground to roof.
As a result of the hotel rooms being in close proximity to the airport runways and terminals, the entire curtain wall system was designed with a very high acoustic rating. The most prized rooms face the TWA Flight Center through curtain wall panels made up of seven layers of glass that weigh 1,740 pounds to make the jet engines and other sounds of JFK barely audible.
© Eckersley O’Callaghan 2024
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