Clipper. The paintingâs style is a less-than-shy nod at Socialist realism, and at the height of â50s McCarthyism, in a controversy not unlike that surrounding Diego Riveraâs famous mural at Rockefeller Center, it was declared propaganda and obliterated with gray paint. Not until 1977 was it restored.
9. An information kiosk
Where is the Yankee Clipper restaurant? Where is the nearest ATM? Where is the nonexistent subway link to the city? Every arrivals hall ought to have personnel who can give directions, hand out maps, and make change.
10. A bookstore
Reading on planes is a natural, am I right? Why then is it so hard to find a proper bookstore at an airport? (Not all of us preload our reading material on a Kindle.) Not long ago, every major airport had a proper bookseller. Nowadays, they are harder and harder to find, and what passes as a bookstore is usually just a newsstand hawking a thin selection of business books, thrillers, and pop-culture trash. Believe it or not, travelersâ tastes extend beyond Sudoku and the latest CEO biography. And naturally, said proper bookstore will be amply stocked with copies of Cockpit Confidential .
11. Sufficient gate-side seating
If the plane at the gate holds 250 people, there ought to be a minimum of 250 chairs in the boarding lounge. There is something uncivilized about having to sit on the floor while waiting to board. Do we sit on the floor when waiting for a table in a restaurant or at the doctorâs office? When Changi was built in Singapore, the gates were outfitted with no fewer than 420 chairs, matching the number on the average 747.
12. Escalator etiquette
Americans havenât figured out how to behave on an escalator. If youâre not in a hurry, you should stand on the right and enjoy the ride, allowing those of us with a flight to catch to walk on the left . Instead, we stand in the middle, hogging up both sides. Ditto for moving sidewalks. The point of the moving sidewalk is to expedite your passage, not to indulge your laziness. Youâre not supposed to stand on it; youâre supposed to walk on it. And to take yet another page from the Europeans and Asians, what prevents us from fitting escalators and sidewalks with a motion trigger that shuts off the motor when nobody is on them? Our conveyors run constantly, riders or no riders, wasting huge amounts of energy.
13. A view
Why are so many architects intent on hiding the fact that airports are actually airports? Gate-side seating always faces away from the windows, and the windows themselves are sometimes intentionally opaqued or obstructed by barriers. Why? Plenty of people would enjoy the opportunity to sit and watch the planes go by. You neednât be an airplane buff to find this relaxing or even a little exciting. As a bonus, more windows mean more natural lightâalways welcome over harsh fluorescents.
Here in Boston, there was once a spectacular observation deck on the sixteenth floor of the control tower. It featured opposing sides of knee-to-ceiling windows and the best view in town. Itâs a scant two miles from Loganâs perimeter seawall to the center of downtown, and you observed the city and its airport in a state of working symbiosis. Passengers relaxed on carpeted benches while kids and families came on the weekends, feeding coins into the mechanical binoculars and picnicking on the floor. It made the airport a destination unto itself, like a park or a museum, and encouraged a kind of civic togetherness seldom seen anymore. You can still find observation decks here and there, usually in Europe. Bostonâs was shuttered in 1989, ostensibly for security reasons.
14. Bring back the airstairs!
Have you ever taken a good look at a jet bridge (or Jetway, to use the proprietary term), that strange umbilicus connecting terminal to fuselage? One thing to notice is how ridiculously overbuilt they are. Do we really need all of that metal and cable and wire and
9. An information kiosk
Where is the Yankee Clipper restaurant? Where is the nearest ATM? Where is the nonexistent subway link to the city? Every arrivals hall ought to have personnel who can give directions, hand out maps, and make change.
10. A bookstore
Reading on planes is a natural, am I right? Why then is it so hard to find a proper bookstore at an airport? (Not all of us preload our reading material on a Kindle.) Not long ago, every major airport had a proper bookseller. Nowadays, they are harder and harder to find, and what passes as a bookstore is usually just a newsstand hawking a thin selection of business books, thrillers, and pop-culture trash. Believe it or not, travelersâ tastes extend beyond Sudoku and the latest CEO biography. And naturally, said proper bookstore will be amply stocked with copies of Cockpit Confidential .
11. Sufficient gate-side seating
If the plane at the gate holds 250 people, there ought to be a minimum of 250 chairs in the boarding lounge. There is something uncivilized about having to sit on the floor while waiting to board. Do we sit on the floor when waiting for a table in a restaurant or at the doctorâs office? When Changi was built in Singapore, the gates were outfitted with no fewer than 420 chairs, matching the number on the average 747.
12. Escalator etiquette
Americans havenât figured out how to behave on an escalator. If youâre not in a hurry, you should stand on the right and enjoy the ride, allowing those of us with a flight to catch to walk on the left . Instead, we stand in the middle, hogging up both sides. Ditto for moving sidewalks. The point of the moving sidewalk is to expedite your passage, not to indulge your laziness. Youâre not supposed to stand on it; youâre supposed to walk on it. And to take yet another page from the Europeans and Asians, what prevents us from fitting escalators and sidewalks with a motion trigger that shuts off the motor when nobody is on them? Our conveyors run constantly, riders or no riders, wasting huge amounts of energy.
13. A view
Why are so many architects intent on hiding the fact that airports are actually airports? Gate-side seating always faces away from the windows, and the windows themselves are sometimes intentionally opaqued or obstructed by barriers. Why? Plenty of people would enjoy the opportunity to sit and watch the planes go by. You neednât be an airplane buff to find this relaxing or even a little exciting. As a bonus, more windows mean more natural lightâalways welcome over harsh fluorescents.
Here in Boston, there was once a spectacular observation deck on the sixteenth floor of the control tower. It featured opposing sides of knee-to-ceiling windows and the best view in town. Itâs a scant two miles from Loganâs perimeter seawall to the center of downtown, and you observed the city and its airport in a state of working symbiosis. Passengers relaxed on carpeted benches while kids and families came on the weekends, feeding coins into the mechanical binoculars and picnicking on the floor. It made the airport a destination unto itself, like a park or a museum, and encouraged a kind of civic togetherness seldom seen anymore. You can still find observation decks here and there, usually in Europe. Bostonâs was shuttered in 1989, ostensibly for security reasons.
14. Bring back the airstairs!
Have you ever taken a good look at a jet bridge (or Jetway, to use the proprietary term), that strange umbilicus connecting terminal to fuselage? One thing to notice is how ridiculously overbuilt they are. Do we really need all of that metal and cable and wire and
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