This high-profile public-private redevelopment adapted the building’s 129,000-sf Flight Center, which hadn’t been used since 2001, into a massive lobby bookended by two wings with 512 hotel rooms, a subterranean 46,000-sf conference center with a 7,000-sf banquet hall and 43 meeting rooms, six restaurants, eight bars (including one that was built inside of the fuselage of a 1958 Lockheed Constellation jet), an observation deck, retail shops, and a rooftop pool. All of these are connected via an underground service system that links to JetBlue Terminal 5.
New mechanicals were added to support new amenity areas and the hotel’s operational spaces that surpass current hospitality and transportation industry performance standards. The hotel now has its own onsite, continuous-duty cogeneration plant that produces all of its electricity and heating independent of the airport’s utility grids. All of the lighting was converted to LEDs, and the sprinkler system was replaced.
HONORABLE MENTION
BUILDING TEAM Jaros, Baum & Bolles (submitting firm, MEP) MCR/MORSE Development (owner/developer) Beyer Blinder Belle (architect) Lubranco Ciavarra Architects (hotel designer) Stonehill Taylor (interior designer–hotel) INC Architecture & Design (interior designer–event spaces) Arup (SE) Turner Construction (CM) DETAILS 440,000 sf Total cost $265 million Construction time December 2016 to May 2019 Delivery method Design-bid-build
Related Stories
Reconstruction Awards | Nov 8, 2019
2019 Reconstruction Awards: The 1060 Project at Wrigley Field
Venerable Wrigley Field is raised up in a top-to-bottom restoration that took five years to complete.
Reconstruction Awards | Nov 6, 2019
2019 Reconstruction Awards: Betting on a city's future
Can a new resort and casino pump life into a city once renowned as the nation’s arms maker?
Reconstruction Awards | Dec 4, 2018
BD+C's 2018 Reconstruction Award Winners
Cincinnati Music Hall, MASS MoCA Building 6, and 20 Times Square are just a few of the projects recognized as 2018 Reconstruction Award winners.
Reconstruction Awards | Dec 3, 2018
2018 Reconstruction Awards: Honorable mentions
These four projects won honorable mentions in BD+C's 2018 Reconstruction Awards.
Reconstruction Awards | Dec 3, 2018
Elgin Tower: Elgin's heart beats again
A project team brings this Chicago suburb’s landmark tower back to life.
Reconstruction Awards | Nov 30, 2018
Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company Building: GC to the rescue
Hawaii’s largest contractor saves one of the state’s prized architectural landmarks—and now calls it home.
Reconstruction Awards | Nov 30, 2018
5 Beekman Hotel and Residences: Back in business
A landmark office tower becomes one of N.Y.’s hottest lifestyle hotel destinations.
Reconstruction Awards | Nov 29, 2018
700 Constitution: Healthy living
Hospital turned apartment brings luxury living to a D.C. neighborhood – and saves a valued piece of architecture.
Reconstruction Awards | Nov 28, 2018
IBEW Local 134 Union Hall: Union lights a 'beacon'
Electrical workers’ local converts an abandoned Chicago school into a brightly lit union hall.
Reconstruction Awards | Nov 27, 2018
Bedford Square: Revivifying urbanity
A suburban mixed-use redevelopment restores ‘the lost art of living closely.'