LaGuardia Airport to Be Torn Down and Rebuilt

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced plans on Monday to completely tear down and rebuild LaGuardia Airport in Queens.

“There is no way to fix this. We need to literally tear it down and rebuild it,” Cuomo said at a press conference.

“LaGuardia Airport is un-New York,” he said. ”It’s slow, dated and a terrible entranceway to New York — a lost opportunity. For New York, it is time to move and get it done.”

Under the plan, LaGuardia’s current terminals would apparently stay open and operational during construction, and would only be torn down upon completion of the new structure, which is being built about 600 feet away. (We’ve reached out to Cuomo’s office to confirm.)

According to Cuomo, the first half of the construction project will cost $4 billion and is slated to begin in early 2016, following final approval by the Port Authority’s board of commissioners. Here’s the full timeline:

The majority of this first half of the project is expected to open to passengers in 2019, with full completion scheduled for approximately 18 months later. The second half of the new unified terminal is expected to be redeveloped by Delta Air Lines, which has indicated strong support for the new vision, and anticipates beginning the redevelopment of its terminals on a parallel track with the LaGuardia Gateway Partners project to complete the new unified airport.

And here is Cuomo’s vision for the new LGA.

Dan Tishman, CEO of Tishman Construction Company and chair of the governor’s Airport Master Plan Advisory Panel, says in a promotional video that the panel was told:

“First and foremost, stop piecemeal development. Create an entirely new facility. Build a new, single, unified terminal running adjacent to the Grand Central Parkway.”

Also in attendance at today’s press conference was Vice President Joe Biden, who famously said last year, “If I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York you must think, ‘I must be in some third-world country.’”

In a recent report, the data crunchers at FiveThirtyEight found LaGuardia to be the slowest major airport in America in terms of flight delays.

Cuomo’s blueprints for the revamped airport include new parking lots, shops and restaurants, as well as an ”on-site automated tram” to carry passengers to their gates.

This new LGA would have the capacity to host an airport hotel with 200 rooms. ”It should be an architecturally significant pubic space,” says Tishman.

The governor also promises to add nearly two miles of space for airplanes to taxi — opened up by moving LGA terminals 600 feet closer to the parkway.