LGA's Long Maligned Main Terminal Wins Award For $4B Renovation

QUEENS — A multi-billion-dollar project to redesign LaGuardia Airport’s long maligned central terminal was recognized for positively contributing to the city’s landscape in 2021, the Municipal Arts Society announced this week.

The arrivals and departures hall at Laguardia’s Terminal B won “best new infrastructure” project in this year’s MASterworks Awards, which honor projects that contribute to New York City’s built environment.

Weston Walker, a juror for the awards, described the project as “truly transformative” and “much-needed,” adding that the design allows travelers to “flow pleasantly through lofty and light-filled spaces” — words that no one would have used to describe the original terminal, which former Vice President Joe Biden infamously called “third-world.”

The $4 billion new hall, which opened this summer, is part of the $8 billion transformation of the airport by former Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Port Authority, which has been in the works since 2015.

“Our goal was to create a gateway New Yorkers can be proud of, with state-of-the-art advancements in a space that represents the soul of the city,” said Stewart Steeves, CEO of LaGuardia Gateway Partners, which oversaw the terminal's development.

In order to accomplish this goal, the development group partnered with the Public Art Fund in 2017, to commission artwork for the airport.

The four chosen pieces, three of which are accessible without a boarding pass, decorate Terminal B, making it a veritable contemporary art museum.

Sarah Sze made an ethereal globe-like statue that’s suspended above the departures level ceiling, Laura Owens adorned walls of the hall with a New York-themed mosaic, Sabine Hornig created a translucent windowscape on the facade to the parking garage, and Jeppe Hein filled the boarding gate area with playful sculptures.