Eero Saarinen called the main terminal at Dulles International Airport “the best thing I have ever done,” even though he didn’t live to see it open. He died in 1961.
The sweeping structure in Washington, D.C. was dedicated in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy. For a PBS series, the Society of Architectural Historians listed the terminal as one of ten buildings that changed America, up there with the Seagram Building by Mies van der Rohe, Vanna Venturi House by Robert Venturi, and Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry.
Now, the Trump administration has Dulles International Airport in its crosshairs. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced this week “a new initiative to explore the revitalization of Washington Dulles International Airport,” whose main hall and and control tower was designed by Saarinen.
Dulles International Airport (IAD) is not a designated landmark, despite its stature in the modernist canon. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) holds the airport’s property title.
Duffy is now inviting developers, architects, and engineers to submit proposals and public-private partnership plans to “construct completely new terminals and concourses” at Dulles. “These structures would replace or build on the existing main terminal and satellite concourses” at Dulles.
At a press conference this week, Trump implied that his administration already has a design vision for the airport. “We have a design that is amazing for Dulles,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting on December 2. “It was a badly designed airport. We’re going to make it as good as there is in the country.”
Trump said he is “going to rebuild Dulles airport because it’s not a good airport. They have a great building and a bad airport.”
DOT cited the Trump administration’s Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again executive order in its announcement, but didn’t explicitly say proposals should be in the preferred neoclassical or traditional styles.
“Consistent with that EO, the President and the Secretary are inviting industry experts to submit information, including design, finance, and construction concepts, for a new international gateway airport for the National Capital Region,” DOT said.
Separate but related, a Republican congressmen from North Carolina proposed a bill that would change Dulles International Airport’s name to “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” The legislation was filed in February just after Trump started his second term.
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