Holding Out For A Eero

Now that the decision has been made to preserve Eero Saarinen’s Terminal 5, the question is what to do with it:

The Port Authority is seeking an earthbound second life for what may be the nation’s most romantic evocation of flight: Eero Saarinen’s landmark Trans World Airlines terminal at Kennedy International Airport.

Although its swooping forms amount to a three-dimensional transcription of “Come Fly With Me,” the building’s days as a functioning terminal were numbered in 2001 with the collapse of T.W.A. Designed in the day of the Lockheed Constellation and strained almost to bursting by the Boeing 747 and its jumbo successors, the 44-year-old building now stands empty, idle and obsolete.

Restaurant? Lounge? Spa? Shopping mall? Conference center? Museum? Theater? Botanical garden? Sculpture court? Office space? A mixture? The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is open to these ideas and “anything else that can be imagined by a redeveloper,” said its aviation director, William R. DeCota.

(a “three-dimensional transcription of ‘Come Fly With Me'”? What in the 23 Skidoo is that hepcat David Dunlap talking about?)

Directly behind the landmark, JetBlue Airways is constructing a new Terminal 5, which is to open in 2008. The buildings will be connected through the dreamlike tubular corridors — featured evocatively in the 2002 film “Catch Me If You Can” — that once led to T.W.A.’s gates. Two electronic ticketing and check-in kiosks will be installed in the Saarinen building, so that passengers who choose to do so will still be able to go through its soaring spaces on the way to their planes.

But something besides two kiosks must fill the 60,000-square-foot main hall, which sits under the vaulted juncture of the four curving concrete lobes that give the building its birdlike silhouette. Something must fill the galleries that once housed the Ambassador Club, the Paris Cafe and the Lisbon Lounge.

One thing not to do — invite fucktard artists to party there.

Happy Birthday, Bridge!

In a simpler time, thousands stampeded to get over to Bayonne:

When the Bayonne Bridge opened 75 years ago today, people on both sides of the graceful new span over the Kill van Kull were so eager to be the first across that they nearly created a stampede.

One daring couple actually tried to cross via the catwalk above one of the arches and was escorted away by a waiting police officer, who then let them go.

To officially open the bridge, Bayonne Mayor Lucius Donohoe drove across in his 1928 Rolls Royce.

He was followed that day by 17,018 other vehicles and 6,933 pedestrians.

. . .

Fast forward three quarters of a century and the span “still has the novelty that it had the day it opened up,” said Bayonne Bridge Manager Jerry DelTufo.

Sightseers seek out the vistas from its walkways.

“It’s still a destination,” he said yesterday at an anniversary celebration in Bayonne’s Collins Park.

. . .

During yesterday’s festivities, Bayonne Mayor Joseph V. Doria Jr. pointed to the immigrant roots on both sides of the bridge. To demonstrate the city’s Dutch heritage, 75 red, white, and blue tulip bulbs will be planted in Collins Park.

“Walls keep us apart,” he said, “but bridges bring us together.”

Location Scout: Bayonne Bridge.

How About The “William A. Shea ATM” — Sorry — The “William A. Shea Citibank ATM”?

Even if Bill Shea loses out entirely, at least Jackie Robinson will get a rotunda:

A rotunda honoring the life of Jackie Robinson, Citibank A.T.M.’s, a 41 percent increase in concessions and enough restaurant capacity to feed 3,134 people are among the features planned for the Mets’ new ballpark, Citi Field, which is scheduled to replace Shea Stadium in 2009, the team announced yesterday.

Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other politicians joined the Mets’ principal owner, Fred Wilpon, and several team officials and players yesterday for a ceremonial groundbreaking on a new 42,500-seat stadium. The design for the stadium is inspired by Ebbets Field, the former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and is expected to cost nearly $800 million.

Under a 20-year sponsorship deal with Citigroup, the stadium will be named Citi Field, displacing the name of William A. Shea. Shea, a lawyer, helped bring National League baseball back to New York in 1962, five years after the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants left. Shea Stadium opened in 1964.

The Mets have encountered some criticism for not naming the new stadium for Robinson, the Dodgers legend who broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, but Wilpon said fans would be welcomed into the soaring Jackie Robinson Rotunda, inscribed with this quotation from Robinson: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” The rotunda will include a statue, still to be designed, and an exhibition on Robinson’s life.

A rotunda is a very thoughtful way to remember the man who broke the color barrier in baseball. Almost as thoughtful as a plaza.

Come See Our Shiny New $1.1 Million Bathroom!

I know a $1.1 million bathroom is like a $400 ashtray, but it’s still a $1.1 million bathroom:

To make our own ceremonial first flush, The Brooklyn Papers sent its top cub reporter to seek comfort in the so-called “comfort station.” After a brief campaign of shock and awe, he declared it a mission accomplished.

Refurbished with a wheelchair ramp and a ventilation system that keeps the air warm and fresh on a cold day, this is one state-of-the-art outhouse.

The structure’s stately brick gives it a Colonial feel, and the natural glow from the skylight adds a nice modern touch.

In fact, it’s such a pleasant comfort station that visitors have been known to seek a lot of comfort. One man, for example, stayed in one of the two stalls for roughly 45 minutes (yes, it’s that clean a bathroom).

He finally came out with a strong endorsement.

“It’s beautiful in there,” he said. “Thank God.”

No, thank City Councilman Vince Gentile (D-Bay Ridge), who pushed the Parks Department to finally finish the $1.1-million project after two years of contractor bungling.

All of which serves as a useful reminder to the Parks Department PR machine that some things are better left unpimped.

Shea And The Citi

Who was William A. Shea anyway?* Now it doesn’t matter:

Citigroup Inc. will put its name on the Mets’ new stadium in a deal reportedly worth $20 million a year, sources close to the negotiations said yesterday.

“CitiField” — as the new ballpark will be called — is scheduled to be ready by the 2009 season and will be located right next to the old Shea in Flushing.

The Mets plan a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday and sources told Bloomberg News they will officially reveal the new name then.

. . .

Bloomberg News reported that Citigroup — the nation’s biggest bank — may be paying as much as $20 million a year for the honor of gracing the 2006 National League Eastern Division champs’ new stomping grounds.

. . .

The stadium’s new name was first reported on the Internet blog hotfoot.metsblog.com, where a reader wrote that his father was working on the new ballpark and noticed a sign at the construction site that read, “CitiField: Coming in 2009.”

*It’s never too late to learn!