Wednesday, May 07, 2008

OPENING DAY OF THE FAIRBANKS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT!!

The day has finally come! Two plus years in the making & the airport was turned on at 3:30am Alaska Time. Its been written up in the newspaper & talked about on the radio......thus far, the only complaints have been that there's too much glass. Its like trying to convince people to turn into the slide when they lose control on the ice- but I'm here to inform you that in large buildings LIGHTING is more expensive than HVAC. Sounds counter intuitive but its true. Happily I've been informed that there have been no complaints about the design:)


So without further ado OPENING DAY!


Here is the World's Most Expensive Bicycle Rack


No lines at Check-In
Follow the Caribou Tracks (& NO! There are no wolf or bear tracks WHY? because I LIKE ANIMALS WITH ANTLERS so don't go there!)
Main circulation Spine:


Up to Security Queuing: (yup, that's an ATV up there)


Greeter Lobby: what you are looking at is steel panels that each one was rusted. It came out sooo beautifully that the time it took to convince the airport to allow us to do it & the research to get it just right was well worth it.



DINOSAUR SANDBOX: this was just a whim that I came up with after talking to kids about the "Airport of the Future". What started as a fence to stop back flow turned into a play box with art in a storefront system around it....note, the art isn't there yet so the glass is temporary. Once the glass is there it will have 3D glass suspended in laser cut still looking like ice flowing down the river. This little sandbox got its own page in the newspaper?

Looking towards baggage claim:

Looking from the end of Baggage Claim back to the Mezz:

And this is for my Architect friends. Look at this detail & weep wussies!



Miss you more than popping the champagne bottle,

V