The featured photograph shows the iconic Tom Bradley International Terminal with its roof alluding to the Pacific Ocean – the shoreline is situated right behind it. Obviously, I was stuck in traffic, when I took that photo. That’s also part of the Los Angeles narrative: cars and traffic jam. Los Angeles is the one city in the US, where you really need a car.
The new Tom Bradley International Terminal of Los Angeles International Airport, LAX, is so far the only airport terminal I was able to witness and accompany being built. Between 2012 and its completion in 2013, I visited the terminal a few times with its architect Curtis Fentress, who graciously gave me interviews and behind the scenes tours. Fentress Architects are renowned for their sense of place design. Their design always respects the region and the surroundings. The regional features and topography are oftentimes re-interpreted into their airport architecture like at Denver, Incheon and many other airports. Based in Denver, Colorado, Fentress have built airports, museums and convention centers all around the world.
The Great Hall of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport was inaugurated in 2013. The Great Hall is the signature of every Fentress terminal, and in LAX it is a soaring public place that extends over one hundred thousand square foot with ceilings that are ten stories high. Three tiers break up the verticality to give it a human scale. Passenger shops on the main level evoke the feeling of a piazza while second and third tiers house fancy restaurants and exclusive lounges.
The Fentress terminal at LAX invokes the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean in its roof structure, and on giant screens in the atrium there is a nonstop-loop of a neo-black-and-white cartoon depicting the golden age of cinema with characters resembling Harold Lloyd. An imposing clock tower with high definition projections of ballerinas dancing to the rhythm of the dials purports the place as the entertainment capital of the world, where dreams are created. This is the sense of place design of the terminal, evoking the history of Los Angeles, recreating its aura.
The Great Hall in its full splendor is reminiscent of Benjamin’s Arcades Project and the passageways of Paris. The flâneur (passenger) strolls through this big arcade-marketplace, looks at phantasmagoria, spends money and dines in its cafés.
