Requests for Information Responses (RFIs) by international architects and developers for a proposed revitalization of Washington Dulles International Airport have landed. The submissions for the Washington, D.C. airport’s redesign follow a call from U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to redesign the main hall and control tower, designed by Eero Saarinen.
Preservationists have taken issue with the open call; members of Docomomo DC and the Art Deco Society of Washington, D.C. both submitted comments opposing the revitalization. The Airline Pilots Association, Int’l, a union, also submitted commentary with recommendations that the project adhere to TSA and FAA regulations, as well as Department of Homeland Security guidelines.
Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and Bermello Ajamil & Partners, a New York office, were among the offices who submitted proposals to Make Dulles Great Again, as the initiative has been dubbed. AECOM, Grimshaw, Adjaye Associates, RCGA+DM Architects, and ZDS Architecture & Interiors have also answered the open call.
Two infrastructure groups Amtrak recently shortlisted to redesign Penn Station, Macquarie Capital and Fengate Capital, have also responded to the open call. Here are a few of the submissions.
Option A in the proposal by Zaha Hadid Architects would create a new terminal sandwiched between the Saarinen terminal and metro station. (Courtesy U.S. DOT)
Zaha Hadid Architects and Bermello Ajamil & Partners
The proposal to Make Airports Great Again by ZHA and Bermello Ajamil & Partners cozies up to the President’s ego, showing the building named Donald J. Trump Terminal. (Senator Bernie Sanders and other elected officials earlier this month proposed legislation that would forbid sitting U.S. presidents from naming federal buildings after themselves, so this title may be out of the question.)
The deck ZHA and Bermello Ajamil & Partners submitted is also aesthetically similar to White House Executive Orders, namely the fonts and slide colors.
The Saarinen terminal would be repurposed as a shopping mall, as part of the joint proposal. ZHA and Bermello Ajamil & Partners presented three options for terminal relocation.
Option A entails a new headhouse immediately north of the Saarinen terminal. The Saarinen terminal would be visible from an elevated pedestrian walkway connected to the metro station, however other sight lines of the Saarinen terminal would be blocked.
Option B would deliver a new headhouse south of the Saarinen Terminal, and Option C would build a new midfield terminal.
The Zaha Hadid proposal would repurpose the Saarinen terminal as a shopping mall. (Courtesy U.S. DOT)
Patrik Schumacher of ZHA is simultaneously designing the Navi Mumbai International Airport for Narendra Modi’s far-right government in India. Schumacher presented ZHA’s design for the airport, as well as his own ideological predilections, last fall at Baylor University, as reported by AN.
The Adjaye Associates and RCGA+DM proposal
Adjaye Associates is partnering with RCGA+DM on its Dulles bid. This team did not submit renderings showing a proposal. Rather, Adjaye Associates touted past projects it designed in Washington, D.C. like Frances Gregory Library and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The design approach by Adjaye Associates and RCGA+DM would emphasize “clear and intuitive terminal organization, reinforcing logical passenger movement and reducing reliance on signage,” “flexible terminal and concourse planning,” and “architecture defined by openness, daylight, and structural clarity.”
The proposal by Grimshaw would relocate terminal functions from the Saarinen-designed hall to a new building closer to the metro station. (Courtesy U.S. DOT)
The Grimshaw proposal
Grimshaw has teamed up with Ferrovial, a self-described global operator of sustainable infrastructure. Renderings by Grimshaw show tensegral columns supporting a curved roof.
The proposal by Grimshaw would deliver a new terminal hall adjacent to the Saarinen terminal. Like the ZHA proposal, this one by Grimshaw seeks to relocate the terminal north of the Saarinen terminal, creating shorter walks from the metro station. Grimshaw also proposed repurposing the Saarinen terminal as a “commercial and social destination.”
The new terminal would have a curved roof supported by tensegral columns. (Courtesy U.S. DOT)
In the Grimshaw proposal the Saarinen terminal would be repurposed as a commercial center. (Courtesy U.S. DOT)
Grimshaw also proposed a “new airport city development” surrounding Dulles. Ferrovial likewise touted its renovations at both London’s Heathrow Airport, Barajas Airport in Madrid, and at JFK International Airport in New York, among other completed projects.
The AECOM proposal
AECOM did not share renderings in its RFI, however it did emphasize its commitment to “developing a new terminal on a greenfield or brownfield site and implementing Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s long‑term master plan for the airfield.”
Architecturally, AECOM envisions maintaining the Saarinen-designed terminal “for revenue‑generating uses” instead of performing terminal functions.
A construction timeline for the project wasn’t issued, however U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did say he wants the massive infrastructure project to move “at the speed of Trump.”