"Go back to the moment you arrived and give us an establishing shot. Why did this hotel catch your attention? If you’re coming from the JFK AirTrain, you’ll depart at Terminal 5 and make your way through a series of hallways lined with people-movers, loop around toward baggage claim, and end up at a seemingly boring elevator. Inside there are only two buttons: “1960s TWA HOTEL” and “PRESENT DAY JETBLUE.” Pressing the former drops you on a quiet landing at the mouth of a long, carpeted tunnel—Leo fans might recognize it from Catch Me If You Can. At the other end, the hotel lobby: a voluptuous, undulating, concrete structure that’s widely considered one of the finest preserved examples of mid-century architecture around today. Give us the backstory on this place. Completed in 1962 and designed by the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, who also designed St. Louis' Gateway Arch, the original TWA Flight Center, was built amid the “Golden Age of Flying,” but closed in 2001 when the airline went kaput. By that point it had already been designated a New York City Landmark (1994), and the Port Authority, various preservation advocacy groups, and JFK set about trying to figure out what to do with it. Eventually Tyler Morse of MCR/Morse Development, pulled together a dream team of architecture and design firms to turn the Flight Center into a 512-room hotel. Lubrano Ciavarra Architects designed two gleaming new hotel additions; Stonehill Taylor oversaw the interior design of the guest rooms; INC Architecture & Design designed the 50,000 square feet of meeting and event spaces, much of it underground, and Mathews Nielson did the landscaping. At the heart of the complex is, of course, Saarinen’s masterpiece, which houses the lobby, check-in desks, dining outlets, shops, a gym, and more. Tell us about your room. Is it as legendary as the rest of the space? First things first: Thanks to some epic wizardry involving layers of glass, rooms are thoroughly soundproofed. You won’t hear a thing: not the booms as planes land and take off, nor the din of Ubers waiting to drop off passengers, nor the high-frequency bleeps and bloops one normally associates with an airport. But you will see all of this if your room faces the runway; if not, you’ll be facing the Saarinen building—either way, the views are a win. Beyond that, rooms, which blend mid-century Saarinen designs and contemporary touches, are comfortable and well laid out without any unnecessary extras—nothing superfluous, no luxuries just for the sake of luxuries. “With the TWA Hotel offering stays for as few as four hours, our design approach was very mindful of the fact that people might only be staying long enough to change clothes, nap, or take a quick shower,” Sara Duffy of Stonehill Taylor tells Traveler over email. Even the lack of a traditional closet was a deliberate design choice: “Hooks on the walls are meant to accommodate just the essentials and ensure all belongings are visible, making it harder for passengers to forget their items,” Duffy says. How is the Wi-Fi? The wi-Fi is free throughout the public spaces and rooms, but the quality was quite poor during our stay. We got kicked off numerous times and had to fire up the old mobile hotspot instead. What's the food scene? Only at an airport can you gleefully consume burrata, sushi, and pizza in one fell swoop, without even questioning why they coexist on the same menu. But here, the food is better than it has any right to be, as is the service, which is warm, competent, and personable.The Paris Café, a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant off the lobby, is a spectacularly beautiful space brimming with classic mid-century-modern furniture grouped by color (if you’ve ever dreamed of dining at a Design Within Reach, here’s your chance). And by the main entrance, which once housed ticket desks there is a grab-and-go food hall with vendors like The Halal Guys, Fresh&Co, and Playa Bowls. Up at The Pool Bar, which overlooks an active runway, a TWA-branded infinity pool is a dramatic setting for cocktails and snacks. If you’re in need of a quick caffeine fix, swing by one of the (many) Intelligentsia carts or the brand’s brick-and-mortar café, opposite the food hall. And if it’s a stronger drink you crave, visit the Sunken Lounge, which was restored to Saarinen’s specifications or, better yet, Connie, a 1958 Lockheed Constellation (an enormous old propeller plane) that’s been reconstructed and converted into a cocktail bar. Overall, how was the service? Typical of large new hotels, the service needs work. Some interactions were great; for instance, the front-desk staff gamely helped us figure out where our room was and even double-checked that our key worked before sending us on our way. The rooftop pool staff continually checked on our drink status and replenished the free snack mix without even asking (or judging). Other interactions were not so great; when we called the hotel’s main number to change the time of a dinner reservation at The Paris Café, for example, we were told to—direct quote—“try and show up early.” And no one really seemed to care that the Wifi wasn’t working. Who all shows up here? Pilots and flight attendants waiting out their next shift; beleaguered travelers eager to catch some shuteye before their connecting flight; Instagram husbands snapping pics at the rooftop Pool Bar; and New Yorkers marveling at the space after taking a day-trip via the AirTrain. What else is in the neighborhood? The "neighborhood" is JFK. As the airport’s only connected hotel—and an actually hip one, at that—TWA blows the competition out of the water. Is there anything you'd change? The 512 rooms are split between the two new seven-story additions, each off a tube that originally led to the TWA departures gates—if that sounds confusing, so too is the room-numbering strategy. Additionally, the Sunken Lounge could use some outlets—it’d be a great place to catch up on email. The clattering on and on of the split-flap Solari board—rebuilt to replicate the original—got a little irksome after a while. (The delightful Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald tunes, however, did not.) Oh, and that Wi-Fi issue: because if there’s one thing an airport hotel should have, above all else, it’s reliable Wi-Fi. Tell us what we missed! The hotel is aiming for 200 percent occupancy, meaning each room can ostensibly booked twice in 24 hours. Say you land at JFK early in the morning and just need a quick catnap, a meal, and a shower, you can book a day stay from 7 to 11am, 8am to 8pm, 10am to 4pm, or noon to 6pm. At 10,000 square feet, the gym here is the largest hotel gym in the world. And the check-in process itself is actually fun; you make your own key card via a little iPad—and miraculously it works. Bottom line: Worth it? TWA Hotel pulls together various passions—aviation and travel, architecture and design, hotel geekery, and food and dining culture. It’s a unique chance to experience an iconic building in an entirely new way. Plus, as far as airport hotels go, let’s face it: This one is leagues beyond the norm." - Sarah Firshein
