If you’re flying into Washington DC, you will probably arrive at either the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), or Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD). Dulles International is located just west of DC, and is a particularly striking building designed by the legendary Mid Century Modern architect Eero Saarinen, best known for the St. Louis Gateway Arch.
A Breathtaking Open Design
When you visit Dulles International, you will observe that the main terminal resembles a great curved concrete “wing.” The slender concrete pylons that lift it up are spaced between walls made of glass. Saarinen described the effect he was looking to achieve as “a strong form between earth and sky that seems both to rise from the plain and hover over it.” He also likened it to a hammock.
It is difficult to find the words to describe the experience of standing underneath that concrete wing. It seems at once ponderously heavy, yet also strangely weightless. You feel its immensity pressing down from above, yet you are simultaneously amazed it can hover above you in the otherwise delicate-looking structure with its wide open interior and its glass walls.
As a child growing up in DC, modernist structures were not to my taste (how we change as we get older and cultivate appreciation!). My younger self preferred the ornate baroque architecture of centuries past. I remember as a child trying to scorn the Dulles terminal’s simplicity out of sheer habit—but I couldn’t. The heavy-yet-light design awed me, and I loved it. It was the building that opened my eyes to the beauty of MCM. After that, an entire world opened up to me. So, Dulles holds a very special place in my heart.
The Innovation That Made It Possible: Mobile Lounges
You have probably been to airports that are dizzying and overwhelming to navigate, with gate after gate and terminal after terminal. If you have a chance to visit Dulles, you will quickly discover the interior is surprisingly uncomplicated. What made this terminal’s simple, open, refreshing design possible was the development of “mobile lounges.”
These “mobile lounges” are fascinating wide vehicles that offer spacious, comfortable seating. As many as ninety people can ride from the terminal to a plane on one of these mobile lounges. Saarinen himself proposed the concept, together with Charles and Ray Eames, who also designed the seating at Dulles.
Later Expansion
Due to changes in air travel, the original design of the Dulles terminal was not able to continue to fully accommodate the growing needs of the airport. As a result, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill were later commissioned to add a corridor and box (Saarinen himself could not oversee the changes; indeed, he did not even get to see the completed original terminal, as a brain tumor at age 51 prematurely ended his life).
These solutions were not particularly elegant. Thankfully, the same firm later was able to build a 600-foot addition to the main terminal during the 90s. This extension made the structure twice as long. Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum constructed a new adjunct terminal at midfield, which thankfully does not detract attention away from the main terminal. In this way, Saarinen’s original intent and vision have been preserved even through all the transformations required over the decades.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like The TWA Hotel: Saving Saarinen, Part 1 and Part 2. And of course, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube for more Atomic Ranch articles, house tours and ideas!
