Originally Posted by
BearX220
Reminds me of the complaints about Frank Lloyd Wright houses like Falling Water. Beautiful designs way ahead of their time, but leaky and drafty, difficult to heat, not enough storage space, hard to live in -- issues Wright himself was notoriously indifferent about once the places were built.
Agreed. Wright is one of those architects - you absolutely love his work. But hearing stories about him make you absolutely cringe. I sometimes wonder if in fact his attitude may have kept the modernist movement in the US back.
As for Saarinen, I don't think he had as many issues. Certainly the Dulles airport terminal did not have the problems that the flight center did. For that matter it was a pretty modern design idea for terminals at the time, unlike the TWA terminal. Knowing that the TWA flight center was really the product of one airline, and at that a kind of personal competition between Hughes and Trippe, it makes it quite interesting to compare the two terminal structures. The TWA flight center was first to go out of commission, yet it still survives, while the WorldPort lasted longer, but has since been demolished.