Consolidated Rental Car Facility

[MadMonk]

That's because its a freakin' tunnel from the airport to a parking garage, not a museum. Nobody cares except a handful of people who have nothing more important to complain about. With only one exception I couldn't tell you anything specific about any airport I've ever been to and I don't base my opinion of a city by what I see in passing at an airport. I don't hang out much in airports if I can help it and as long as it's clean and relatively efficient about moving me from point A to point B, I couldn't care less what artwork or design elements are used.

[catch22]

Yes it's a tunnel.

So is the tunnel in Terminal 1 at Chicago O'Hare:



So is the tunnel in Frankfurt, Germany:




So is the tunnel in Detroit Metro Airport.




And then we have our bland, boring, leaking tunnel to show off to people visiting from out of town going to their rental cars.

[bluedogok]

It all comes down to money.....

[catch22]

Here's some photos of Birmingham, AL recent terminal expansion/remodel. Looks so much more "big city" than ours.

Photos & Pictures | Photos from Birmingham - al.com

[catch22]

It all comes down to money.....

Obviously, if you look at the construction and design quality of our airport -- money was a big issue it seems.

[Buffalo Bill]

And then we have our bland, boring, leaking tunnel to show off to people visiting from out of town going to their rental cars.

Wouldn't people renting cars merely walk out the door, head north about 100 feet, and get in their rental car? Why would they go down to the tunnel?

[catch22]

I see people using both methods.

[Buffalo Bill]

Here's some photos of Birmingham, AL recent terminal expansion/remodel. Looks so much more "big city" than ours.

Photos & Pictures | Photos from Birmingham - al.com

Not a fan of the low ceiling heights. Too claustrophobic.

[adaniel]

Not a fan of the low ceiling heights. Too claustrophobic.

I was actually about to post the same thing. I much prefer our bright and open setup at WRWA. I guess its just a matter of personal preference. I don't see how its more "big city" though.

[catch22]

The ceiling height looks to be around 22 feet or so. Not sure how much more vertical room you need considering the average height of the human is around 5'9" and most offices are 11 ft tall. This is comparable to many airports around the world. Ceiling heights aside, just going off of the pictures alone, I can tell their airport has a much better feel to it than ours does. Check out that signage...you can actually read it and the signs are numerous. Our use a transparent green background plexi-glass looking material, with white stickers (I have seen where they have peeled the stickers off to change information and the background is a different color in the outline) for letters. Big city....

[Buffalo Bill]

I was actually about to post the same thing. I much prefer our bright and open setup at WRWA. I guess its just a matter of personal preference. I don't see how its more "big city" though.

I really enjoy the setup at WRWA, too. It gets lots of compliments from friends and work colleagues from Austin, who have a similar setup in their relatively brand new airport.

[Buffalo Bill]

The ceiling height looks to be around 22 feet or so. Not sure how much more vertical room you need considering the average height of the human is around 5'9" and most offices are 11 ft tall. This is comparable to many airports around the world. ....

Look at the 3rd picture. The guy's on a 3' platform and his heads against the ceiling. Scale is all wrong.

Dozer bait.

[catch22]

Look at the 3rd picture. The guy's on a 3' platform and his heads against the ceiling. Scale is all wrong.

Dozer bait.

So are these 3 foot tall doorways then?

[bluedogok]

Obviously, if you look at the construction and design quality of our airport -- money was a big issue it seems.

There were a lot of compromises made in terms of design and budget, much to the dismay of the designers, all areas had some budget cuts.

The only thing that I worked on for the renovation project was the redesign of the security areas in the very early post-9/11 period. The security that we are doing in Minot is much different than what we were allowed to do 12 years ago.

[ljbab728]

The ceiling height looks to be around 22 feet or so. Not sure how much more vertical room you need considering the average height of the human is around 5'9" and most offices are 11 ft tall. This is comparable to many airports around the world. Ceiling heights aside, just going off of the pictures alone, I can tell their airport has a much better feel to it than ours does. Check out that signage...you can actually read it and the signs are numerous. Our use a transparent green background plexi-glass looking material, with white stickers (I have seen where they have peeled the stickers off to change information and the background is a different color in the outline) for letters. Big city....

Sorry, I agree with the others. The Birmingham airport looks nice but I saw nothing that would make me prefer it over ours. The concourse is very generic and the exterior of the building looks cheap compared to Will Rogers.

Have you ever experienced the Big City airports in places like LA or Miami? Give me OKC any day for ambience.

[jn1780]

The creation of the TSA ruined any kind of pleasant experience I may have at an airport. I just want to get out of there as fast as possible.

[ljbab728]

The creation of the TSA ruined any kind of pleasant experience I may have at an airport. I just want to get out of there as fast as possible.

That's great, jn. Now I can get through the line faster. LOL

[jn1780]

That's great, jn. Now I can get through the line faster. LOL

If only. Lol

[catch22]

Sorry, I agree with the others. The Birmingham airport looks nice but I saw nothing that would make me prefer it over ours. The concourse is very generic and the exterior of the building looks cheap compared to Will Rogers.

Have you ever experienced the Big City airports in places like LA or Miami? Give me OKC any day for ambience.

Yes I visit LA quite often. I might even go next week. I've also worked at a hub....

Our airport is aesthetically pleasing (for the most part) but it is still cramped in areas, and from a functional standpoint is still subpar. The airport was poorly designed. It does not function smoothly, especially for operational purposes.

[HangryHippo]

That's because its a freakin' tunnel from the airport to a parking garage, not a museum. Nobody cares except a handful of people who have nothing more important to complain about. With only one exception I couldn't tell you anything specific about any airport I've ever been to and I don't base my opinion of a city by what I see in passing at an airport. I don't hang out much in airports if I can help it and as long as it's clean and relatively efficient about moving me from point A to point B, I couldn't care less what artwork or design elements are used.

People like you annoy me to no end. To say nobody cares is patently false, and I assure you, I've got plenty of other things that are far more important to complain about. I'm sorry you're oblivious to your surroundings, but I would like projects held to a higher standard than simply being moved from A to B.

[HangryHippo]

Yes it's a tunnel.

So is the tunnel in Terminal 1 at Chicago O'Hare:



So is the tunnel in Frankfurt, Germany:




So is the tunnel in Detroit Metro Airport.




And then we have our bland, boring, leaking tunnel to show off to people visiting from out of town going to their rental cars.

I'd like this post 100 times if I could. This is exactly what I'm talking about.

[HangryHippo]

There's no doubt that projects often reflect the amount of money available, but we tried to do a little bit of everything without doing anything very well. So, we end up with a poorly functioning airport that already needs renovations in several areas.

[BoulderSooner]

i travel quite a bit and i think our airport is better than most what do you see exactly as poorly functioning?

[catch22]

i travel quite a bit and i think our airport is better than most what do you see exactly as poorly functioning?

• The vertical flow of the building. Arriving passengers are dumped into the departure lobby and mixed with passengers trying to go up to the departure level or using the security area. Also allows people to congregate and crowd the sterile area (areas beyond the checkpoint) exit-ways creating a major conflict point. All airports I have been to, force you to the arrivals level before exiting the sterile area
• Also, escalators are places seemingly randomly throughout the central terminal building. Obviously if you know where to go you can find the right escalator, but assuming you have no idea where you are going and the signs don't offer much help -- you might get confused.
• The concessions areas are crowded and cramped. This is to be even more an issue when they create the central security checkpoint, squeezing the central food court into an even smaller space with less seating, kitchen room, and storage areas.
• Signage is piss-poor at best. Some are located in very illogical areas (for example, on the arrivals level, one is located right in front of the elevator...On one side it is not an issue, but try seeing the sign from the other side, you have to be standing in the 3 foot gap between the elevator and the sign to read it). The signs are way too small and usually out of place. I get asked for directions on simple things everyday. "Are the rental cars downstairs?" "How do I get back to the parking garage?" "Which way is baggage claim?" "Where is the east checkpoint located?" This is the job of signs, and proper placement and simple LARGE font would fix this
• The bagroom areas (where your bags are sorted) are extremely cramped. The layout makes it impossible to tow more than 3 carts without slamming at least one cart into the pylons/curbs/walls while making turns. Also the belts breakdown at least once a day, and during peak times, are often over capacity. Hopefully the redesign of the belt system will fix the reliability issues, but it won't fix the outrageously small footprint of the bagroom. You can still only fit so many carts in that area.
• There are no tunnels from one side of the West Concourse to the other. If you are working a flight out of Gate 10 and need to go to Gate 5, you must walk all of the way around the West Concourse to access that, or go up the stairs, enter the terminal (which we are informed not to use anymore due to the doors constantly breaking/locks malfunctioning), then exit the terminal, walk back down the stairs, etc. Other airports I have worked at all have "tunnels" to allow relatively quick movement between sides of a concourse.
• The tunnel could be a little better with improved signage. People generally know where to go, but people want to be SURE they know where they are going. Getting out of an elevator, looking to your left and seeing a long tunnel, and looking to your right seeing the same. Signs placed every so often repeating the same information assures people they are headed the right direction. Signs posted immediately out of the elevator lobbies with an arrow pointing to DEPARTURES AND ARRIVALS, TERMINAL BUILDING, RENTAL CARS need to be placed.
  

Regarding signage, you must assume every traveler or visitor has never stepped foot into an airport before, and you must assume they need directions. Our signage assumes you know where you are going and thats why people are always lost and asking me for directions on my lunch break (not that I mind, I would just rather the signs do their job).

[Bellaboo]

In the last 10 days, I've been through our airport, DFW and San Juan Puerto Rico each twice. At WRWA, every escalator, elevator and people mover was working that I came accross. Not the same in the other two, DFW or SJU.

To make things worse, we checked in at SJU, got our boarding passes and had the bags to check weighed. One thing we did not due, just wasn't aware and didn't see any signs to let us know, was that we had to check all of our bags through the Dept of Agriculture scanners. We had to leave the shipping labels, go to the DOA scanners, then come back and get the labels......was not that big of a deal, but everyone was having problems with it.

WRWA is easy and simple.This said, I agree with the signage issue. I know where i'm going, visitors may not.