New Salt Lake City Airport

[OUman]

Have you noticed that new airports don't have that convex curve. They all try to maximize sight lines.

You are right, the trend since the late '90s has been toward linear terminals, as in the case of Shanghai, Detroit etc. My guess is back when our terminal was built, that was the design trend and if we were to go completely linear, of course that would require a complete tear-down and rebuild, for which the right time was when the project first began. That would have also raised the cost well beyond the $110 million that was spent. As bombermwc mentioned however, from a passenger perspective finding what you want is not really a big deal at WRA since the terminal is small (I've walked the entire terminal twice in 20 minutes at a leisurely pace while waiting for a flight).

[Just the facts]

The old structure was built for a different time of air travel. They didn't have to take things like food service into consideration because you ate on the plane. The curve was built to provide a sweeping view of Oklahoma landscape, not for the comfort and conveniences of the traveler. Obviously airport officials know the benefits of linear terminals because the new wing is linear and they were quoted as saying how it improved visual sightlines to gate numbers, food service, bathrooms, and retail outlets. Using its small size to compensate for its outdate design isn't really a good argument to me because you don't have to be big to act big (I work in an industry that thrives on the 'fake it til you make it' philosophy). Anyhow, the curvature is but one example out of many and like several have pointed out, the time to fix it should have been back during the initial project but that plane has already left the gate and OKC wasn't on it.

The question now is, does OKC keep spending money bolting new stuff on to an old design or does WRWA become a MAPS IV project and get rebuilt from the ground up?

On edit, maybe that is a question for another thread as I just remembered this thread is about Salt Lake City's airport. Sorry for the detour.

[catch22]

Well they're about spend several hundred million on an expansion that completes the arc (It is not symmetrical as it stands now), and adds an east concourse stub.

Here's a photo showing how the eastern half of the terminal building is not symmetrical to the western half. It is one "bay" short.

[ChargerAg]

so the curved part is all part of the original terminal?

[catch22]

Pretty much, except for the westernmost addition to the curved part.

[bombermwc]

Something that the curve does do is allow for a third terminal to jet out (pardon the pun) from it and even Y off if we want. The curve would actually allow for an increased gate access space compared to if it were straight....depending on how it's configured. And of course a Y doesn't mean anything with either straight or curved. The west terminal can't expand westward anywhere because of the angled runway. East could even add a north/south element in the future for gate expansion.

All of that to say, should WRWA ever need to expand again, we have room to do it without it seeming to feel "slapped on" like so many airports.