09/03/2026
The League’s former Board Chair Frank Sanchis helped lead the campaign to preserve Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal at JFK Airport back when he was the Executive Director of the Municipal Art Society of New York. He shared this testimonial with us about how Section 106 played a key role in saving this incredible building and helping it become something new: “The TWA Terminal at JFK Airport would have been demolished by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, but for the 106 public review process. Rather, through the involvement of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, the The Municipal Art Society, The Preservation League of New York State, and numerous other interested parties, it was completely restored and is now the centerpiece of a highly successful hotel.
Designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1958, the TWA Terminal is a designated New York City Landmark and acknowledged as one of the most outstanding extant examples of airport terminal design in the world. Over a period of 20 years, from 1999 to completion of the project in 2019, public comment and input resulted in the preservation and restoration of the headhouse and connector tubes of the original TWA Terminal; the redesign of the new JetBlue terminal, located directly behind it, to provide a more compatible setting for the Landmark terminal; and the design and siting of the new hotel to provide maximum visibility of the TWA Terminal.
What would have been a travesty is instead a triumph.”
Photos: David Mitchell, Courtesy TWA Hotel
