Don't Forget Delight
Airports are experiential as well as functional. How well they deliver as places where pleasure lingers in passengers’ memories is the new measure of success. So the push is on for new ways to make flying a delight.
What do casinos and airports have in common? “Both are ‘purpose-driven machines,’” says Gensler’s William Hooper, a leader of its aviation practice. While far more aspirational than gambling emporiums, airports also have to meet the pragmatic demands of processing crowds of people every day. But this is just a baseline requirement. Airports’ more ennobling task—creating functional, secure buildings that also enhance the passenger experience—is complicated by a huge cast of potential stakeholders and a daunting set of revenue-enhancing imperatives. Knitting these diverse elements into a coherent whole that provides pleasing spaces for travelers constitutes the essence of contemporary airport design.
Divide and conquer
Airport projects come in two varieties: retrofits or replacements and ground-up airports. Terminals in many cities are in dismal shape, say Gensler’s experts, yet building a brand-new airport is beyond the reach of many airport authorities. To meet their future needs, airports are taking a divide-and-conquer approach, focusing on incremental improvements that are financed and implemented over many years.
Because many airports don’t have a lot of room for expansion available, packing in new operational necessities and ever-larger amenities becomes a jigsaw puzzle. “The real innovation in airports is in planning,” says Gensler’s Kap Malik. At LaGuardia, the firm proposed to gain space by adding height. “Security is a level above ticketing, with its own drop-off for passengers with no bags to check,” says his colleague Ty Osbaugh. Manchester, a gateway airport in the UK, is another example. It has three separate terminals currently. Gensler has been tasked to rebuild it in place, says Pat Askew, transforming the airport by reconfiguring its departure areas and retail stores to create a consistent passenger experience. To grow revenues, Manchester is also planning an “Airport City”–type development that will reinforce it as a destination.
New rules of competition
Across the globe, these purpose-driven machines share an increasingly urgent social objective: to bring order, clarity, calm—even beauty—to the passenger experience. To do this, airports and airlines are breaking the people-processing mold. “They’re competing on experience and brand,” says Askew. “They have to woo new groups of passengers—like vacation travelers, families, or high-mileage business travelers—and keep existing customers coming back.” It’s happening in India, adds Kashyap Bhimjiani, citing Gensler’s recent upgrading of Chennai’s airport as a domestic and global gateway to the Madras region.
A spate of airline mergers is also having ripple effects on airport design. For example, the marriage of United Airlines and Continental has prompted a retooling of United’s identity, brand, and passenger processing. As a result, Gensler is working with United’s brand consultant at Newark Liberty International to overhaul the former Continental terminal to project the United brand.
The advent of more fuel-efficient, longer-range aircraft, such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, is driving growth of point-to-point international flights. Gensler’s recent expansion of JetBlue Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport supports that airline’s use of smaller planes on routes to the Caribbean and Latin America. Another project—adding gates at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport—anticipates its future growth in cross-border flights.
