Originally Posted by
Cloudship
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.
I cannot locate the relevant thread here, but please remember that Saarinen's IAD terminal was greatly expanded and 'modernized' in the 1990s. It was also approaching its functional limits (please recall the 'mobile lounge'), but the powers-that-be made valiant and successful efforts to save the Dulles terminal.