{"id":393730,"date":"2026-01-27T20:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393730\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T20:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T20:19:10","slug":"flurry-of-famed-architects-submit-designs-for-trump-airport-terminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393730\/","title":{"rendered":"Flurry of famed architects submit designs for Trump airport terminal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multiple well-known architecture studios, including Zaha Hadid Architects<\/a> and Grimshaw<\/a>, have created proposals for Washington Dulles Airport, following president Donald Trump’s call for a redesign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The studios responded to the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) request for information (RFI<\/a>) released in early December 2025, which called for proposals to “replace or build upon the existing main terminal and satellite concourses at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)”, with proposed designs.<\/p>\n

Though nowhere in the request for information is there any explicit mention of terminal names, a proposal by Bermello Ajamil & Partners<\/a>\u00a0in partnership with Zaha Hadid Architects<\/a> features fleshed-out renderings with Donald J Trump Terminal affixed to a prospective structure.<\/p>\n

Republican lawmakers have been pushing for the renaming of the airport since before Trump’s second inaguaration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldSeveral architecture studios have suggested redesigns of Washington Dulles International Airport. Image of Bermello Ajamil & Partners LLC\/ Zaha Hadid Architects scheme<\/p>\n

London-based Grimshaw<\/a> and infrastructure firm Ferrovial<\/a>, created a proposal that features a sweeping accordion ceiling structure accompanied by a masterplan that reorganises other facility buildings, such as parking structures.<\/p>\n

Other proposals from studios such as AECOM<\/a> and Adjaye Associates<\/a> included text-based proposals but did not feature renderings or new designs.<\/p>\n

The proposals come after Trump remarked<\/a> on the “incorrectly designed” terminals and called Washington Dulles Airport a “terrible airport”.<\/p>\n

One of the main contentions over the project has been the historic status of its Eero Saarinen<\/a> designed terminal, which Trump commended when he commented on the overall bad design of the airport.<\/p>\n

“Actually, it’s got a beautiful terminal \u2013 one of the greatest architects in the world at the time,” he said at the time. “And so they have a great building and a bad airport, but we’re gonna turn that around.”<\/p>\n

\"Grimshaw\"Most of the calls heed the DOT’s call to preserve the existing Saarinen-designed terminal. Image of Ferrovial\/Grimshaw scheme<\/p>\n

Conservation group Doconomo<\/a> responded to the RFI expressing “serious concern” over the project’s impact on the 1962 Saarinen building.<\/p>\n

Its response expresses “serious concern regarding any revitalisation initiative that could result in the substantial alteration or demolition of Eero Saarinen’s Main Terminal at Washington Dulles International Airport”.<\/p>\n

\"IADThe RFI came after remarks from Trump of the poor functioning of the airport. Image of the Ferrovial\/Grimshaw scheme<\/p>\n

The original RFI did not state the historic building must be retained.<\/p>\n

“The department will also accept submissions that propose to retain portions of the existing airport facilities, including, for example, by incorporating all or part of the historic Eero Saarinen-designed main terminal into a new terminal building,” said the RFI.<\/p>\n

“Once known for its iconic aerofoil-inspired main terminal designed by Eero Saarinen, the airport is now better known for its inefficient system of people movers that deliver passengers as much as a half mile or more away from their gates, its infamous moon-rover-like ‘mobile lounges’, jet fuel smell in the concourses, and a paltry number of gates at the main terminal,” it continued.<\/p>\n

“In short, Washington Dulles International Airport is no longer an airport suitable and grand enough for the capital of the United States of America.”<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"HKS<\/p>\n

HKS releases first design of colonnaded Washington Commanders Stadium\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Both the Bermello Ajamil & Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects proposal, and the Grimshaw and Ferrovial design maintain the Saarinen building, with suggestions to repurpose the terminal into a lounge.<\/p>\n

AECOM’s proposal also suggests shifting the Saarinen building into a more commercially oriented use, turning it to “revenue\u2011generating uses rather than adapting it to functions it was never intended to serve”.<\/p>\n

\"EeroAdvocacy groups have insisted on the preservation of the existing Saarinen terminal<\/p>\n

The RFI also explicitly mentions Trump’s Making Federal Architecture Beautiful Again<\/a> executive order, saying it is “consistent” with the order.<\/p>\n

However, both the Grimshaw and Ferrovial, and Bermello Ajamil & Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects proposals are decidedly contemporary.<\/p>\n

The DOT did not respond when approach for comment on this story, and the window for submissions for the RFI has closed.<\/p>\n

The imagery is courtesy of DOT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multiple well-known architecture studios, including Zaha Hadid Architects and Grimshaw, have created proposals for Washington Dulles Airport, following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2121,6225,6485,6486,1120,141,96,65448,40339,40340,40341,56,54,55,659,803,25860],"class_list":{"0":"post-393730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-airports","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-grimshaw-architects","16":"tag-sectionall","17":"tag-sectionarchitecture","18":"tag-sectionnews","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-unitedkingdom","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-washington-dc","24":"tag-zaha-hadid-architects"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}