The main terminal at Washington Dulles International Airport was designed by Eero Saarinen, with the design dated to 1958. The airport was dedicated on November 17, 1962, and the first scheduled flight followed two days later. The article calls the design Modernist and praises its graceful beauty, suggestive of flight, and the American Institute of Architects recognized it in 1966.
A suspended catenary roof encloses a wide space without columns. Ticketing is on the upper level, with baggage claim and customs below. The terminal was built with no concourses, so passengers reached aircraft by mobile lounges. The article does not name the materials or the client.
It was built 600 feet (180 m) long and extended in 1996 to 1,240 feet (380 m), which the text also calls Saarinen's original design length. A 41,400-square-foot International Arrivals Building and a central security checkpoint opened in 2009, and the AeroTrain followed in 2010.
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