JFK Airport’s TWA Hotel receives state historic preservation award

John F. Kennedy Airport’s TWA Hotel is the recipient of a 2019 State Historic Preservation Award. Governor’s Office/Flickr.

By Jonathan Sperling

John F. Kennedy Airport’s newly opened TWA Hotel is one of 10 recipients of a 2019 State Historic Preservation Award.

The TWA Hotel, constructed inside JFK’s decades-old winged terminal earlier this year, received an award for “Excellence in Historic Building Rehabilitation,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday.

Trans World Airlines terminal, designed by world-renowned architect Eero Saarinen in 1962, was closed to the public in 2001. But after $268 million in construction completed in May, the terminal was transformed into the centerpiece of a luxury, 512-room hotel that sits adjacent to Terminal 5.

Guests pay around $250 per night to stay at the hotel, which also features 50,000 square feet of event space, a 10,000-square foot observation deck and pool, and a 10,000 square-foot fitness facility. 

"New York has transformed over centuries into a state defined by its diverse history, and there is no better way to see that history than in our unique architecture and places," Cuomo said in a statement.

The TWA Hotel is the only Queens historic site to receive a 2019 State Historic Preservation Award this year. The New York City Housing Authority was the only other city entity to receive an award. NYCHA received an “Excellence in Historic Preservation and Environmental Consultation” award for its work with the State Parks Department to create a streamlined process for National Historic Preservation Act reviews, and for having worked on more than three dozen city housing projects that now sit on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.