LaGuardia Airport Queens

Original site

Prior to human development, the coastlines of Bowery Bay and Flushing Bay converged at a natural point that comprised the eventual northern shoreline of Newtown, Queens. By 1857 the area partially contained the estate of Benjamin Pike Jr., which was soon purchased and consolidated with other property by William Steinway.[8] In June 1886, Steinway opened a summer resort development known as Bowery Bay Beach on the peninsula. Originally featuring a bathing pavilion, beach, lawns, and boathouse, the resort was renamed North Beach and later expanded with the addition of Gala Amusement Park.[9][10] By the turn of the century, North Beach’s German-influenced development drew comparisons to Brooklyn’s Coney Island. Its fortunes would soon turn, however, as Prohibition in the United States and war-related anti-German sentiment presented significant challenges to the resort’s profitability. These factors, combined with increased industrialization and pollution of the Queens waterfront, made the area untenable as a leisure destination, and it was abandoned at some point in the 1920s.

North Beach Airport

In April 1929, New York Air Terminals, Inc. announced plans to open a private seaplane base at North Beach later that summer. The 200-acre (81 ha) facility was inaugurated on June 15, initially featuring a 2-acre (0.81 ha) concrete plateau connected to the water by a 400 ft (120 m) amphibious aircraft ramp, with the former resort converted into a passenger terminal. Opening-day festivities were attended by a crowd of 5,000 and included Air Races with Curtiss Seagulls and Sikorsky flying boats, a dedication address by Borough President George U. Harvey, and the commencement of airline service to Albany and Atlantic City by Coastal Airways and Curtiss Flying Service. One month later, service to Boston was launched using Savoia-Marchetti S.55 aircraft operated by Airvia.

By 1930, the airport had been improved with hangars and night-illuminated runways, and it housed seaplanes of the recently reorganized New York City Police Department Aviation Unit. On September 23, the site was renamed Glenn H. Curtiss Airport in honor of the New York aviation pioneer who had died one month earlier (not to be confused with the preexisting Curtiss Field in nearby Garden City or a similarly renamed airport in Valley Stream). During a ceremony that same day, representatives from the forerunner to Trans World Airlines announced their bid to establish the nation’s first transcontinental airmail route to the airport using Ford Trimotors. Eleanor Roosevelt and Charles Lindbergh were in attendance.

Municipal Airport 2

The 1934 election of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia ushered in a new era of public investment in New York City’s airports. La Guardia, a long-time aviation advocate, had criticized both federal and state governments’ slow progress in establishing municipal airports in the city in a 1927 editorial penned while serving as a US Representative of New York. Although several potential sites had been identified, La Guardia primarily pushed for the transformation of Governors Island into a combined airport and seaplane base. He described it as a teeming transportation hub at the city’s extreme center, stating, “No greater monument to the life and activity of the Republic can be imagined.” However, military and shipping concerns eventually shut down the proposal. Despite this, La Guardia and industry leaders maintained that New York City needed a central “express” airport to complement the farther-flung Floyd Bennett Field, which had been completed in 1930.

LaGuardia Airport

The initiative to develop the airport for commercial flights began with an outburst by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia (in office from 1934 to 1945). Upon the arrival of his TWA flight at Newark Airport—the only commercial airport serving the New York City region at the time—La Guardia, whose ticket said “New York,” demanded to be taken to New York. He ordered the plane to be flown to Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field and gave an impromptu press conference to reporters along the way, urging New Yorkers to support a new airport within their city.

American Airlines accepted La Guardia’s offer to start a trial program of scheduled flights to Floyd Bennett Field, but the program failed after several months because Newark’s airport was closer to Manhattan. La Guardia even offered police escorts to airport limousines in an attempt to persuade American Airlines to continue operating the trial program.

During the Floyd Bennett experiment, La Guardia and American Airlines executives began planning a new airport in Queens to take advantage of the new Queens–Midtown Tunnel to Manhattan. The existing North Beach Airport was an obvious location but too small for the planned airport. With backing from the Works Progress Administration, construction began in 1937 on the waterfront of Flushing and Bowery Bays in East Elmhurst, bordering Astoria and Jackson Heights. Building on the site required moving landfill from Rikers Island, then a garbage dump, onto a metal reinforcing framework. This framework still causes magnetic interference with the compasses of outgoing aircraft, and signs on the airfield warn pilots about the problem.

Due to American’s pivotal role in the airport’s development, La Guardia gave the airline extra real estate during the airport’s first year of operation, including four hangars, an unprecedented amount of space at the time. In 1939, American opened its first Admirals Club, the world’s first private airline club, at the airport. The club took over a large office space previously reserved for the mayor, but following press criticism, La Guardia offered it for lease, and American vice president Red Mosier immediately accepted the offer.

 Redevelopment

In April 2010, Port Authority director Christopher Ward announced that the agency had hired consultants to explore a complete demolition and rebuilding of LaGuardia’s Central Terminal. The project aimed to create a unified, modern, and efficient airport, replacing the amalgam of decades-old additions and modifications. Estimated to cost $2.4 billion, the plan included demolishing the existing central terminal building, its four concourses, garage, Hangar 1, and frontage roads; constructing temporary facilities; and designing and building a new central terminal building. The reconstruction would be staged in phases to maintain operations throughout the project.

Proposals were due on January 31, 2012. Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority, commented, “It’s got a quaint, nostalgic but unacceptable kind of 1940s, 1950s feel that’s just not acceptable.” The Port Authority sought a private company to develop and operate the replacement terminal with private funds, similar to Delta’s operation of the other terminals at the airport. However, in January 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would oversee the construction of the long-stalled new terminal project instead of the proposed public-private partnership.

On July 27, 2015, Governor Cuomo, joined by then-Vice President Joe Biden, announced a $4 billion plan to rebuild the terminals as one contiguous building with terminal bridges connecting the structures. Airport officials and planners concluded that the airport essentially had to be torn down and rebuilt.