OFFICIAL - New KCI Terminal

[horizons82]

You’ve got it backwards. Lower level is arrivals; upper level is departures.

If you look back at the renderings for the baggage carousels you’ll see the windows sync up with the precast panels that have been placed.

[TheLastGentleman]

[KCPowercat]

yeah guys, that was my edit to say the pic matched up with the panels. Quit rubbing it in!

[horizons82]

FWIW, the materiality for the arrivals area next to the roadway is a tough one. With the roadway above creating a semi-enclosed space that vehicles are traveling through, you have to abide by pretty stringent fire standards, ergo the precast concrete for the adjacent surfaces.

[Chris Stritzel]

From Saturday, two "Y" shaped supports are up. I'd expect these to add an iconic flare to the new airport. Definitely look forward to checking this out when finished.




This is from Tuesday morning from the plane I was on.

[mykem]

underground or arrivals level? Yes the columns are two stories tall (arrivals and departure + roof)

The renderings of the arrivals level is very glassy, not concrete slabs.

edit...ehhh, maybe not. Pretty utilitarian arrivals level.

The precast concrete slabs are for the arrivals area. Each slab is 22 ft in height.

[moderne]

I find the photos very much deceiving in giving a sense of the scale of this project. In person it is huge. If there was a photo with the current terminals included it would be more illustrative. Old terminals=strip mall, new terminal=Oak Park mall. Approaching the new terminal the scale and massing is reminiscent of the Berlin train station. This will be the air age equivalent of Union Station for KC at last.

[kboish]

For scale.











EDIT: Added banana for scale

[KCPowercat]

need banana for scale.

[flyingember]

Old terminals=strip mall, new terminal=Oak Park mall.

Incredibly, this isn't true.

The new terminal is going to be slightly smaller than the three old ones combined

New: ~1 million sq ft
A, B, C together were about ~1.1 million sq ft.


With the old buildings you couldn't see the entirety of even one terminal from one spot, let alone all three. And the garages were hidden out of sight until you were on top of them. With the new structure a huge portion will be visible coming in.

If you were to compare the ticketing counter space or luggage pickup, the new certainly dwarfs the old.

[flyingember]

need banana for scale.

A porta potty should work, there's two in view

[KCMOJoe89]

“The crowded nature of things in an airport has always made me uncomfortable, particularly in a less modern one,” Dr. Fauci said. “People are literally nose to nose waiting to get on the plane.”

He said new terminals needed to allow enough space for people to spread out, offer high-efficiency particulate air filtration and distribute free masks.

In Kansas City, officials are making adjustments as necessary. If more space is needed, their design has flexibility built in, something older airports can’t do as easily.

“As of now, we haven’t changed course or modified the existing new terminal design, but we are in the early stages of exploring how to enhance traveler safety and health,” Mr. McBride said.

The new building will give the airport more flexibility in dealing with this pandemic or future ones, including the possibility of conducting health screenings outside, said Laura Ettelman, a managing partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, an architectural and design firm in New York that is overseeing the airport renovation.

The pandemic will accelerate future terminal construction at other airports to incorporate flexibility, she added.

“Airports are difficult architecturally because they become outmoded quickly, so all the buildings we are working on today are about flexibility and more flexibility,” Ms. Ettelman said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/busi ... Position=1

Interesting the Times referring to the new KC terminal as a "renovation"...

[normalthings]

Old terminals=strip mall, new terminal=Oak Park mall.

Incredibly, this isn't true.

The new terminal is going to be slightly smaller than the three old ones combined

New: ~1 million sq ft
A, B, C together were about ~1.1 million sq ft.


With the old buildings you couldn't see the entirety of even one terminal from one spot, let alone all three. And the garages were hidden out of sight until you were on top of them. With the new structure a huge portion will be visible coming in.

If you were to compare the ticketing counter space or luggage pickup, the new certainly dwarfs the old.

New terminal is 1.1 million sqft.

[horizons82]

https://www.buildkci.com/wp-content/upl ... erk-co.pdf

Based on the latest status report, it looks like in the next 6-8 months the exterior of the terminal will quickly start to come together.

After pulling back up the submitted city elevations from last fall, I forgot just how much of the lower level and some of the upper level ended up being precast. Those panels should go up in no time & help to give a feel for the final product. Although, I think all the glazing wil be the real star, especially compared to our current midcentury bunker.

[Chris Stritzel]

It amazes me that this terminal won't be ready until 2023. I could see this looking completed by Summer 2022

[normalthings]

UPS plans big KCI expansion. Airport facilities will be expanded to support 5 wide bodies from 2 today.

“The expansion includes a 534,000-square-foot aircraft apron with enough space to simultaneously park five wide-body cargo jets and a complete renovation of the existing 50,000-square-foot sorting facility. New state-of-the-art sorting equipment will increase package handling capacity from 1,500 to 5,000 packages per hour.”

https://www.flykci.com/newsroom/news-re ... i-airport/

[Anthony_Hugo98]

New time lapse up for August, can’t wait to see full build time lapse start to finish, that will be extremely satisfying to watch. As well, biz journal had an article about the return of international flights. Nothing major, just Mexico and Canadian routes, really hope the new terminal gives us a chance at another Iceland air deal, as well as maybe opening up market to continental Europe. Links below

Time lapse: https://youtu.be/2BYOZ1HROGw

Biz Journal: https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... s_headline

[flyingember]

New time lapse up for August, can’t wait to see full build time lapse start to finish, that will be extremely satisfying to watch. As well, biz journal had an article about the return of international flights. Nothing major, just Mexico and Canadian routes, really hope the new terminal gives us a chance at another Iceland air deal, as well as maybe opening up market to continental Europe. Links below

Time lapse: https://youtu.be/2BYOZ1HROGw

Biz Journal: https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... s_headline

Gaining a direct flight pairing like alternating to London and Paris would be a major gateway to the east. Iceland Air was nice but it didn't take people many places past Iceland in the same way as picking up a United or Delta flight to Paris would with their partner flights.

I'm really hoping there's airlines looking at shifting what's currently connecting flights away from NYC, Boston or Atlanta, and free up seats in those airports, but the terminal was the problem

[Anthony_Hugo98]

New time lapse up for August, can’t wait to see full build time lapse start to finish, that will be extremely satisfying to watch. As well, biz journal had an article about the return of international flights. Nothing major, just Mexico and Canadian routes, really hope the new terminal gives us a chance at another Iceland air deal, as well as maybe opening up market to continental Europe. Links below

Time lapse: https://youtu.be/2BYOZ1HROGw

Biz Journal: https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... s_headline

Gaining a direct flight pairing like alternating to London and Paris would be a major gateway to the east. Iceland Air was nice but it didn't take people many places past Iceland in the same way as picking up a United or Delta flight to Paris would with their partner flights.

I'm really hoping there's airlines looking at shifting what's currently connecting flights away from NYC, Boston or Atlanta, and free up seats in those airports, but the terminal was the problem

I thoroughly agree, having to travel back and fourth between my duty station in Italy and KC for the last four years, I can attest to how amazingly useful that flight would be! We’ll be set up almost perfectly for a direct connection to Europe when the terminal finishes.

[herrfrank]

KC's first European long-haul flight would likely be LHR London Heathrow on BA (perhaps codeshare with AA). MCI Kansas City was rumored to be in the next few US cities for LHR nonstop service until the COVID calamity. AA has recently moved to LHR Terminal 5, so connections between the US and BA's European, Asian, and African destinations won't require a terminal change.

One barrier to entry for any nonstop Euro service (whether BA or a DL codeshare to AMS or CDG) would be a lounge. Business class tickets underwrite long-haul services, and these customers expect a departures lounge that is at least as nice as an Admirals Club. DL and AA both closed their MCI lounges in the past years, but I would suspect that one or both will open a lounge at the new terminal. Kansas City bounced between being a DL and AA city for a long time, and now is really a Southwest (WN) city.

Obviously, none of this expansion happens until the airlines are back at 2019 levels, which will probably be after the new MCI terminal opens.