A preview to JFK airport’s new TWA Hotel
The iconic TWA terminal at New York’s JFK airport is coming to life again. Soon we will be able to experience the magic of Eero Saarinen’s landmark 1962 TWA Flight Center restored as a first-class hotel.
The iconic TWA flight center was built in 1962 and closed in 2001. Hotel development company MCR and Morse Development (which developed the High Line Hotel in Manhattan) turned the center into a hotel with 512 rooms, six restaurants and bars, one helmed by Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and an Intelligentsia coffee bar and cocktail lounge. The entire TWA Hotel project cost $265 million, according to TWA Hotel.
At the center of the TWA Hotel is Eero Saarinen’s iconic TWA Flight Center, where restaurants, bars, and retail outlets will take flight. Two hotel wings, designed to reflect and defer to the landmark TWA Flight Center, located in Terminal 5, and sit behind the historic building and contain 512 guestrooms with views of JFK’s runways.
- Flight tubes to JetBlue Terminal 5 made famous by the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can
- 512 hotel guestrooms
- 50,000-square-foot event and conference center that can host up to 1,600 people
- 200,000-square-foot heart of the hotel with retail outlets, restaurants, and bars
- 10,000-square-foot fitness facility
- AirTrain to JFK terminals
TWA Hotel’s 512 ultra-quiet guestrooms are inspired by the year 1962, when Jet Age excitement electrified the country, John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy graced the White House in the golden Camelot era and The Beatles released “Love Me Do,” TWA Hotel’s guestrooms will have views of JFK’s runways and the historic TWA Flight Center. The guestrooms designed by New York City firm Stonehill Taylor will be accessible through Saarinen’s iconic flight tubes made famous by the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can. Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy some highlights of our rooms.
The rooftop infinity pool and observation deck at the TWA Hotel will make a splash on the hotel’s opening day, May 15, 2019 — and remain open 365 days a year. The water in the 63-by-20-foot infinity edge pool offers a much-needed respite during sweltering summers. Come winter, it turns into a pool-cuzzi — the water can be heated up to 100 degrees. Whatever the weather, the H2O is perpetually pristine: the highly filtered water is purified every 30 minutes, a standard pool recirculates every 6 hours.
The TWA Hotel’s Connie welcomes you aboard her newly-renovated cabin, where vintage-inspired cocktails flow and snacks are served with a smile. Don’t forget to pop into her cockpit and navigate the original controls — including the hidden radar. The Lockheed Constellation L-1649A aircraft was motored through New Hampshire and Massachusetts and traveled through New York before her glorious return to the former Idlewild Airport, which has changed just a tad since she left in 1960.
Locally-made, quick meals will be dished up in the historic Departures Hall, where Trans World Airlines travelers once checked in for flights. New York City culinary institutions that cook up fresh, high-quality eats will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner from dawn to dusk. World-renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten will premiere the Paris Café restaurant at the hotel, opening on May 15, 2019. The restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and cocktails at a medium price point.
Soon we will have a feature article on this landmark hotel. See more at www.twahotel.com