The Port Authority says that the building will be preserved and will be used for... something. A museum (at the fucking airport???!!!!), or an office building (in a wide-open space designed for check-in?), or... something. I suspect the Port Authority really just hopes it'll eventually collapse from neglect, but of course they can't say that, because there are a couple of dozen people out there who think it's better to leave this building standing, surrounded by concrete superstructures on all sides and visible only from a parking lot, than to deal with the inevitable fact that this building will never be usable again.

And over at terminal 3, which is only moderately less useful, the same holds true. It's space-age design is increasingly invisible, but it can't be changed or knocked down. Terminal 2, next door, is a horrible space which is of course too close to the adjacent terminals to be expanded in any useful way. In the next crunch for the airlines, One or both will be abandoned, and JFK will find itself with another relic.

I grew up with these buildings and they have great sentimental appeal to me as did the (now gone) International Arrivals/Departures building and the old control tower. But they're useless today. Unlike some other older terminals around the world, these structures cannot be moved or easily re-purposed. Leaving them disconnected, abandoned and often hated as they are is, to my mind, worse than just knocking them down. It's time to deal with the fact that an airport needs to be a functional entity first and foremost. There's room for historic preservation, but not when the buildings can no longer serve any useful purpose other than satisfying the whims of those who will never go out to the airport to see them in the first place, and who will rarely suffer the indignities imposed on those who are forced to use their beloved structures.

Me? I won't be forced to using them anymore. No more Delta flights to New York, which effectively means that Delta is no longer my primary airline. Hopefully actions like mine will someday leave these useless buildings abandoned, and force the City of New York to deal with reality rather than continuing to exist in the fantasy-world where the limited space available at an airport can be held hostage to a few people's desire to hang on to obsolete structures that can serve no current purpose.

And while we're at it, stop worrying about fixing the "theme building" at LAX too. Knock it down and improve airport access instead. With the new (1980s era) 3-level terminals, it no longer dominates the airport or provides much in the way of a useful landmark, and has never been useful as a restaurant.

-btc