There’s a couple of different areas in the airport that currently have a very interesting interior design. They’re both the kind of design that make you wonder whether they were intentional, or just the kind of accident that only a designer could appreciate. And even when you know in your brain that they’re just a byproduct of another process, your heart wants to believe a construction worker somewhere was deeply proud of the design he’d covertly created.

[click on each of these pictures for a larger version]

ONE: The Floor.

There’s a large section of the main traffic area of Concourse C where the traditional carpet and tile have been removed. The area shifts fluidly as they work on different sections, but at any given time, it’s an area approximately 25 feet wide by 50 feet long. It’s covered in 4’ x 8’ sheets of industrial brown particle board. The sheets are taped together at the seams with what looks like bright red duct tape. Then each board is emblazoned with white spray-paint stenciled letters reading “WATCH YOUR STEP”. By the floor’s nature, it completely transforms the space; instead of the regular mindless walk through the airport, you’re immersed in an environment explicitly designed around making you watch your step. It continues to amaze me how much power this design has in the space. Walking through the area, you can’t help but start to think about how you’re walking, what your stride looks like, how your feet push off the ground as you step forward. (And, supporting my secret fantasy about this being a covert interior design project is the fact that various boards in the area are stenciled in at least 3 different type faces. What construction worker would do that?)


TWO: The Ceiling.

Concourse T. It’s like the concourse that time forgot; the others are A-E; where’d T come from? Delta (who practically owns the airport) shoves all the other airlines in this forgotten end of the airport. In one half of the concourse, there’s a brilliant interior design that I refuse to believe wasn’t intentional. Over a massive area, the entire traditional drop ceiling is missing. In it’s place isn’t the typical warehouse loft exposed ceilings. It’s exposed like someone walked away from an autopsy in mid scapel cut. Every piece of the old ceiling is there, but has been left dangling from wires and support cables. Light fixtures, fire alarms, wayfinding signage — all hanging precariously from silver-wrapped ductwork and unfinished beams. Then, in the perfect self-referential coup de grace, every hanging piece has a bright red tag attached that reads “FIXTURE IS SAFE AND SUPPORTED FROM STRUCTURE”. You’re engaged and enthralled before you know what hit you. Never before have I taken so much interest in a ceiling. The whole environment feels like a dissertation on the state of construction or deconstruction of the world around us. To be sure, its message is open to interpretation; but this ceiling is arguably the most interesting piece of design in the airport.