Seven new gates are now complete within the Western Concourse of LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B. The announcement represents a major milestone of an ongoing redevelopment project valued at around $8 billion.
Skanska USA is the lead partner of the Skanska-Walsh Joint Venture responsible for both construction and design. Additional members of the project team include global design studio HOK and engineering consultants WSP USA.
The Western Concourse comprises four floors with a total footprint of 250,000 square feet. The seven gates as well as the concourse are expected to debut to the public on August 5, 2020, one full month ahead of schedule. In addition to the new gates, the concourse also offers an indoor park with benches, light landscaping, updated restrooms, 55-foot ceiling spans, and floor-to-ceiling windows that bathe the space in natural light.
View of gate seating in the Western Concourse at LaGuardia Airport Terminal B
View of Western Concourse at LaGuardia Airport Terminal B
“We are thrilled to celebrate another significant milestone at LaGuardia Airport, our largest and one of the most complex projects in Skanska’s history,” said Richard Kennedy, president and CEO, Skanska USA. “Opening these gates ahead of schedule with an exceptional safety performance is a testament to the diligence and tireless dedication of our team, subcontractors, and partners—an exceptional feat in light of a global pandemic.”
This latest milestone follows the completion of the new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall, referred to as Headhouse, which opened in June 2020. Headhouse serves as the central entry point for travelers flying out of Terminal B, a new parking garage, and the forthcoming Central Hall, which will connect to Terminal C and a new AirTrain network.
By early 2021, the Terminal B Western Concourse will house a total of 18 gates. The seven most recently completed gates will service American Airlines.
“Today’s opening of the first seven new gates in Terminal B’s Western Concourse is part of 18 months of fast progress as we near the finish line of the complete transformation of LaGuardia Airport,” said Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “Thanks to Governor Cuomo’s vision and leadership, construction of A Whole New LaGuardia Airport continues full speed ahead with this summer’s opening of the new Arrivals and Departures Hall, the early opening of the new concourse and gates, and completion of nearly 75 percent of all roadway work due to the reduction in traffic.”
Map of construction phases and estimated completion dates for LaGuardia Terminal B – Image by Mike Arnot
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I do not argue or mention anything other than development, read only without a bad temper that is ready to destroy: Thank you.
David, you don’t really mention much of anything. You just spew gibberish.
1000000000000000000000% agree — finally someone says it
Anything would be a big improvement over what LGA has been, but it still does not feel like it’s an airport for one of the word’s most important cities. I am shocked by how much carpeting there is. Normally you only see carpeting in airport hallways in tier 3 cities. A step up for sure, but still not something appropriate for NYC!
Lipstick on a pig. They should connect with LGA with rulers via landfill, and turn Port Morris into a transit hub with a convention center. This plan was put forth be rethinkNYC.
Lipstick on a pig. They should connect LGA with Rikers Island via landfill, and turn Port Morris into a transit hub with a convention center. This plan was put forth be rethinkNYC.
Good idea. Too bad the powers that be are more interested in pandering to the illiterate masses and feathering their own careers, rather than building what will make New York an even greater city.
The real problem is that a politically connected hack will push the special interests of a few dozen loud activists over the best interests of the other 24,000,976 metro NYC residents.
Good idea. Too bad the powers that be are more interested in pandering to the illiterate masses and feathering their own careers, rather than building what will make New York an even greater city.
The real problem is that a politically connected hack will push the special interests of a few dozen loud activists over the best interests of the other 24,000,976 metro NYC residents.
The way this new airport was designed to be built during the functioning of the existing airport is brilliant. Even the design is fairly good as far as American airports go.
But why will that huge white roof not be covered in solar panels? That’s a great way for the airline industry to improve their carbon footprint.
I absolutely agree with you!
This is great.
They should have extended the physical size of the airport instead.
Why not extend it through and including the Rikers Island prison?
DeBlasio intends to eventually close this prison and has already been letting hundreds of felons back on the street.
Extension of the runways and approaches should have a higher priority.
Pilots have complained of this for years.
A modern nice clean terminal shouldn’t be at the top of the list.
The full Western Concourse will open by early 2022 not 2021.
OMG, could it be any more uninspired? I pray that it is at the very least FUNCTIONAL.
So Thankful for this project!
$8 billion to build 250,000 SF of terminal. At $35,000 per SF, it sounds a but pricey to me. But that is what you expect from government spending.
What they really need to do is spend a fraction of that to extend the N line subway to LGA. Governor Cuomo’s plan to build a $3 billion shuttle to transfer to the 7 line stop at Willets Point is idiocy from political expediency.
As I understand it, the subway extension would require condemnation of nine parcels of private property to build a vastly improved center city to airport connection. Robert Moses didn’t let 50,000 homes stand in the way of the Cross-Bronx Expressway connection to the George Washington Bridge. He had a heavy hand and broke a few eggs to make his omelet, but the New York region would have died of strangulation without him.
Public opinion should be employed to improve the local impact of any grand scale public improvement, but not at the cost of sacrificing an important regional improvement for some jury rigged patch to satisfy a few local special interests over the general welfare of everyone in the metro area.
And just in time too!
NYC government has been proverbially corrupt since the 19the century. There are library-full of books and films about this. Why would it be any different now? Just to remind you, the city spent more money on building a tiny courthouse (the size of a large Midwestern family house) than US paid for buying Alaska–at the same period! The courthouse is still there, and mayor Bloomberg spent another gazellion renovating it 10 years ago to become a museum—but then turned into a tiny government office!! Soooo why all those hundreds of millions restoring and artistically fixing the interior if file cabinets were to be rolled into those rooms? Yeah, you guess it.