Award of Merit - Airport

AirTrain JFK Terminal at Howard Beach Station

The $40 million Howard Beach Station rail link terminal in Queens serves as a critical intermodal transit hub for the AirTrain JFK. The 8.1-mi., $1.9 billion light-rail system links John F. Kennedy International Airport's nine passenger terminals to each other and to the Long Island Rail Road and New York City Transit subways.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey constructed the new hub at the existing Howard Beach subway station for the A train. While that station has historically served the 25-block-wide, nine-block-long Howard Beach neighborhood, the new hub aims to ease airport access to people across the greater New York metropolitan area. Its role is much like its companion "gateway terminal" at Jamaica Station, also in Queens, which connects to the Long Island Rail Road, and which won this year's Project of the Year award in the airport category.

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The project team built the new terminal on a fast-track schedule, beginning construction in summer 2002 and wrapping up in time for AirTrain JFK's debut in December 2003, with ongoing site completion work through this year.

"You have to work with both the Port Authority and the MTA," said one judge. "Obviously, it took a lot of teamwork and coordination to get that kind of job done."

An example of that coordination was the requirement to keep the old, two-story concrete and steel subway station operational during construction. The project team sited and built the new structure in front of the old station, which it then demolished after completing construction.

The Howard Beach terminal consists of two glass-enclosed vertical circulation spaces totaling 10,000 sq. ft. that connect the subway platforms, the airport's long-term parking area, the neighboring community, and a new mezzanine that spans over the platforms. A connector bridge leads passengers over to the 9,500-sq.-ft. AirTrain terminal.

The environmentally controlled, 9,200-sq-ft. mezzanine serves as the core intermodal linkage for the whole complex. Constructed over the existing right-of-way for the A train, the new mezzanine provides a heated and air-conditioned space where passengers can wait, offering views down to the subway platforms. The area connects down to the platforms via glass-enclosed elevators and wide escalators that accommodate baggage.

The new station's façade has an aluminum and glass curtain-wall system. The enclosure system for the underside of the mezzanine consists of stainless steel Epicore decking, which is corrosion resistant and does not require painting. The project added the same system under the subway platforms, complementing it with fiberglass panels on the platform walls and a stainless steel standing-seam roof.

That was part of an extensive fix for the subway platform area. The design for the 20,000-sq.-ft. subway platform area incorporates similar patterns and detail, creating a visually holistic environment for arriving passengers.

A capping element was the extensive use of transparent, clear glass in the overall design. That element permits a clear diagram of the terminal's components, with each transit function visible and easily understood. "It's gorgeous," said one judge.