urbanSTL

JaneJacobsGhost wrote: ↑

2:03 PM - Jan 23

I hope that’s right. I agree that this is the chance to get it done right.

So stupid that people in power thought the free money would last forever and we waited to build this until the cost of capital doubled (or more)

I personally think it would already be built but it was delayed by the privatization effort and then covid. Both of those really put the brakes on everything at the airport. 

Trololzilla wrote: ↑

7:50 PM - Jan 24

Airport reconstruction starting to make the rounds on some YouTube construction channels:



Bit vague but nice to see it's starting to be noticed. Hopefully it gets pulled off correctly in any case.

I thought it was a good overview for anyone who isn't really following it that closely. Some details but not too many. 

If money wasn’t a problem, I’d encourage the new terminal design to mimic the domes. Just make the domes smaller and multiply them. Add some nice glass jet bridges to it, and you’ll something unique on this front.

An extremely long string of those domes is what I have always dreamed of for the airport!

Hoping our new concourse at Lambert is tall and wide like the ones shown for new new Dulles terminal in the Washington topic.  With the planes packed in on both sides, I hope they leave plenty of room for food and shopping stores.  If we are ever a major hub again, the terminal needs to be a shopping mall for folks stuck there a couple of hours.  And a work center with plenty of space and internet plugs and bandwidth for work-from-airport.

gone corporate wrote:^Add to that: We need ceilings tall enough that the terminal can host a second level with restaurants and lounges. 

2nd floor restaurants usually do poorly, even in hubs. Lounges is another case but you can simply put them on the roof (KCI) or the basement (LGA)

gone corporate wrote: ↑

4:56 PM - Jan 27

^Add to that: We need ceilings tall enough that the terminal can host a second level with restaurants and lounges. 

Although I don’t hate the idea for lounges, this won’t happen. Costs would go way up.

New concourse under construction in Tampa: 16 gates, 600k sq ft, international arrivals area. $1.5 billion. A people mover from the headhouse surely contributes to the cost.
https://onemileatatime.com/news/tampa-a ... airside-d/

^I was at LAX today and thought if we could even get something half this nice I’d be thrilled but we will probably end up with something 5% as nice. I just really want to see the renderings so we can quit speculating

Illegal immigration is way down this last year for the same reason tourism and legal immigrations is way down. America under this administration is not a place people want to come to.


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^^You liked LAX? I am surprised. I didn't particularly care for it. I found it to be a bit too warm, a bit too smelly, and poorly connected. (We had to get out and around from the customs arrival hall to the main ticketing hall, since some TSA office somewhere missed a memo, even though we had perfectly valid boarding passes in hand.) The lounge was nice, though. I admit, I'm biased, but LAX was pretty far down my airport list. I think I prefer Atlanta, Detroit, and maybe even DFW. It's . . . functional. Nothing was truly horrible. It was probably a better place to arrive than O'Hare, say, but that's not saying much. (On the other hand, I shudder to think what getting from customs at Lambert to the A or C concourses is like right now. Probably a right nightmare. I wish the new concourse could fix that before the World Cup and the LA Olympics. *sigh*)

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

6:06 AM - Feb 07

^^You liked LAX? I am surprised. I didn't particularly care for it. I found it to be a bit too warm, a bit too smelly, and poorly connected. (We had to get out and around from the customs arrival hall to the main ticketing hall, since some TSA office somewhere missed a memo, even though we had perfectly valid boarding passes in hand.) The lounge was nice, though. I admit, I'm biased, but LAX was pretty far down my airport list. I think I prefer Atlanta, Detroit, and maybe even DFW. It's . . . functional. Nothing was truly horrible. It was probably a better place to arrive than O'Hare, say, but that's not saying much. (On the other hand, I shudder to think what getting from customs at Lambert to the A or C concourses is like right now. Probably a right nightmare. I wish the new concourse could fix that before the World Cup and the LA Olympics. *sigh*)

I thought the international terminal (Tom Bradley) and the terminal Delta is (I think 3) were very nice. High ceilings big open areas. So those are what I was referring to.

They were in the middle of rebuilding 4 and 5. I imagine they will be nice.

The AA RJ terminal was one of the worst I’ve ever been in.

LAX varies significantly depending on who your flying and what your plans are.   Reminds me a lot of JFK.   I use to fly into LAX from Northern Cali solely on Southwest because you could literally walk over to the taxi/uber ride in five minutes and avoid shuttle buses & traffic and at same time it was first terminal for any dropoff before you hit the mess.    My most recent trip into LAX I flew into delta, which has done wonders with their new terminal, and had to go find my wife at American, a different story.   Then the painful rental shuttle bus ride through the terminal.   However,  things change and assume they will have their automated skyway & multimodal/rental car facility finally up and running.   

For Lambert, hope they choose a few less gates if need be for a better quality, amenities, and overall terminal.  Can always add gates with the linear design with minimal impacts to gates and or operations.    Hopefully see renderings soon as well.   I can visualize some impressive international gates as front and center after clearing  security.  Get a couple big widebody jets in there as part of that front and center.  

jshank83 wrote: ↑

5:48 PM - Feb 07

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

6:06 AM - Feb 07

^^You liked LAX? I am surprised. I didn't particularly care for it. I found it to be a bit too warm, a bit too smelly, and poorly connected. (We had to get out and around from the customs arrival hall to the main ticketing hall, since some TSA office somewhere missed a memo, even though we had perfectly valid boarding passes in hand.) The lounge was nice, though. I admit, I'm biased, but LAX was pretty far down my airport list. I think I prefer Atlanta, Detroit, and maybe even DFW. It's . . . functional. Nothing was truly horrible. It was probably a better place to arrive than O'Hare, say, but that's not saying much. (On the other hand, I shudder to think what getting from customs at Lambert to the A or C concourses is like right now. Probably a right nightmare. I wish the new concourse could fix that before the World Cup and the LA Olympics. *sigh*)

I thought the international terminal (Tom Bradley) and the terminal Delta is (I think 3) were very nice. High ceilings big open areas. So those are what I was referring to.

They were in the middle of rebuilding 4 and 5. I imagine they will be nice.

The AA RJ terminal was one of the worst I’ve ever been in.

Ah, gotcha. I thought they were all pretty much cookie cutters. I've only flown through once, on American. Customs was in a pretty typical basement, so I never really saw the international terminal. There was apparently some kind of interior connection, but because of the TSA screwup I had to go out and around and up some weird elevators to find the check in desk for American in a pretty unremarkable ticketing hall, which checking a map was presumably T4. A lot of out and around was required, though less than you'd need to get from our own T2 customs to T1 ticketing. Airside the ceilings were high, but it was noisy in a somewhat unpleasant way, it was rather warm and sticky, and the air smelled of stale fryer grease, which is a thing I always find a little off-putting. Bad ventilation. To be completely fair, there was a construction project going on at the time, and there were a lot of temporary vents strung around outside, so they were probably doing HVAC work. I don't really think it was a bad airport, but it seemed . . . disjointed. And yeah, JFK is pretty similar. Another airport I don't much care for, really. Though I'm glad to have flown through TWA's flight center, even if I didn't appreciate it much at the time. (AC was on the fritz, it was unpleasantly hot and sticky. I feel like this is a theme.)

I can respect that there are doubtless areas there worth looking at, but the airport as a whole isn't one I'd recommend as a model, even if specific spots are nice. It's probably a problem that any larger, older airport with a complicated history is going to have. (And it's a big part of Lambert's problems.) Things get disjointed, and your experience gets really hit and miss. And getting from one spot to another can get really complicated. LAX might be a great airport for O&D, but it's probably not ideal for connections. Though . . . I've certainly seen worse. Anyway, the AA lounge was pretty pleasant, and Delta runs a pretty tight ship, so I fully expect their side of the world was pretty good, at least airside. But for Lambert, I still hope we get something along the lines of a mini-Detroit A concourse, and I'll gladly accept it with lower ceilings, just so long as the AC works and the kitchens vent outside properly.

I’m going to drop this idea here and maybe through our collective networks it one day leads to something… but I was completely stunned by the scale and regionally specific subject matter of Anselm Kiefer’s exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum this past winter. The largest pieces will remain in the main hall until Summer 2027…

I think it would be amazing to have our new terminal incorporate these massive (30 feet x 30 feet!) pieces into the design as a central installation. Kiefer is an internationally renowned artist and these works were inspired by the river confluences around our region.

Plus, they’re kind of unsettling like the art at Denver International Airport, which creates buzz while also a rooting travelers to a sense of place here.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott ... orld-class


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dweebe wrote: ↑

1:45 AM - Feb 08

We're not going to get this:


We'll get something less than this:

Why even post this? This forum is so negative now, it's almost not worth visiting. No, we won't get something as elegant as Portland in all likelihood, but we haven't even seen renderings yet. Can we at least withhold judgment until then?