It may be old hat to this community of frequent flyers, but for those who have not yet seen it, this 1958 promotional video by designers Charles and Ray Eames lays out the original concept of what the IAD mobile lounges would be like: (link via YouTube). The video is about 9.5 minutes long and if you are interested in airport design and aviation history, is definitely worth watching in full, but if you are impatient you can skip forward to the 6.30 mark for sketches and descriptions of the mobile lounges as originally envisioned.

While I don't know if the lounges were ever built to this design to start with, their use has obviously evolved greatly over time into a much less pleasant experience than first conceived. But the video is an interesting window into the thinking of the time, and a reminder of the challenges of designing a building to accommodate continually evolving technology, security standards, and passenger volume. Some of the potential modernization fixes being discussed in this thread may themselves eventually become obsolete due to developments we cannot adequately forsee.