HOK’s design for the Salt Lake City International Airport terminal redevelopment project will significantly improve efficiency at one of the nation’s most-traveled airports.
The project began with the planning and design of a 48-gate central terminal. This first phase, which includes a parking garage and the west portion of the South Concourse, will open in 2020. The airport later decided to also develop the North Concourse, which added 30 gates to the 2.6 millilon-sq.-ft. project. All 78 of the airport’s new gates will open by 2024.
The new three-story terminal and concourses will replace a total of 29 outdated structures, including three separate terminals and five concourses. The highly efficient terminal building is being constructed west of the existing complex. The “future-proof” design provides flexibility that will enable specific areas to be easily modified and reconfigured as the needs of the airport and airlines change over time.
Excerpted from The New York Times:
Two features of design and construction distinguish the reconstruction: its linear layout, and the lack of disruption to the airport’s operation. When the project is finished, the airport will consist of an airy central terminal flanked by the two wings of its 3,700-foot-long South Concourse. In front of that will be the 3,400-foot-long North Concourse.
The unbent concourses, designed by the architecture and engineering firm HOK, are characteristic of airport reconstruction projects to accommodate big planes. The three old terminals, dating to the 1960s, are connected by an outdoor sidewalk and were upgraded sporadically through the decades with clusters of gates served by fans of tightly spaced jet bridges.
“It’s a very flexible and efficient design,” said Bill Wyatt, the airport’s executive director. “If we need more space after the initial phase of construction, you can add capacity as far as the eye can see, virtually without any disruption at all.”