Washington Dulles International Airport Main Terminal
Eero Saarinen · Dulles, United States · 1962
Eero Saarinen’s Dulles terminal gives air travel a sweeping monumental form through a suspended catenary roof held between outward-leaning concrete piers. The glass-enclosed hall remains remarkably open, allowing arriving passengers to read the building and airfield as one continuous space. Originally paired with mobile lounges that carried travelers to aircraft, the terminal was conceived around a new choreography of jet-age movement. Opened in 1962, Dulles remains one of the defining works of post-war American transportation architecture.