2000 Art Deco Preservation Ball
Airport Restoration Tour and Lecture
Saturday, November 4, 2000, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Exhibit Hall of Historic Terminal A
Ronald
Reagan National Airport
Sold Out
Prior to Doc Scantlin and the Imperial Palms Orchestra striking up the first musical note of the evening, Daniel Feil, FAI, Airports Authority Terminal Design Project Architect will conduct a lecture and tour of Terminal A. Mr. Feil’s lecture will be an overview of the architectural restoration program of Historical Terminal A. H. Henry Ward, Airports Authority Historic Coordinator will assist Mr. Feil with the tour. Both gentlemen will answers questions on the tour.
The tour will include the restored Main Waiting Room, FDR President’s Suite, Post Office, original Observation Deck and the Terrace Dining Room.
A major portion of the Terrace Dining Room is now the exclusive VIP passenger club for Continental Airlines Presidents Club lounge. The tour will end in the Presidents Club lounge with a cocktail hour before the Ball begins at 9:00 PM. Many of these areas are not normally open to the public. Continental Airlines is generously and graciously opening the doors to their Presidents Club lounge for the tour. It is truly a special opportunity to view these wonderfully restored rooms. The FDR President's Suite is not normally open to the public and the major portion of the Terrace Dining Room is not normally accessible to the public, due to the fact that it houses the exclusive Continental Airlines VIP passenger club.
FDR President's Suite
The President's Suite was built for the convenience of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It had been designed to provide FDR with an easily accessible, private waiting room and reception area at the airport. The facility was built on the terminal’s ground floor with direct access to an apron-level airfield door.
Like the rest of Historic Terminal A, the original suite design was an attempt to use then-modern, relatively inexpensive material to create restrained yet elegant surroundings. Much of the rehabilitation program focused on restoring the room’s original features and finishes. The original floor, although largely intact, required a combined approach of small-scale patches and replacement of a few larger damaged floor sections with carefully matched new terrazzo. Damage to the laminate wall panels was repaired and larger holes were filled and then meticulously painted to match the original wood grain. All of the original light fixtures had been discarded long ago, so appropriate new wall sconces and ceiling fixtures had to be located and installed in the original positions. Appropriate new furnishings were selected for this unique space and this new “old” conference room stands as an example of an excellent adaptive use of a historic area.
Terrace Dining Room
National Airport’s original Terrace Dining Room was a jewel of 1940’s architecture and interior design, with a curved wrap-around window wall providing unparalleled views over the airfield to the national monuments across the Potomac River. The space was graced with an elaborately inlaid blue terrazzo floor, a decorative molded plaster ceiling and an elegant curved wood panel interior wall. To enter the space, one mounted the Grand Staircase and passed through a glass and aluminum window wall with doors framed by graceful Art Deco designs in molded relief.
Since the 1940s, the space has undergone a series of modifications, which gradually damaged or obscured most of the room’s original charm. Many original components (including the terrazzo floor and plaster ceiling) still existed in repairable condition. The 1940 plans and historic photographs provided the information for the reconstruction of the missing elements.
The former Terrace Dining Room has been meticulously restored and divided into two spaces in order to house Continental Airlines’ VIP club as well as an Airports Authority Exhibit Hall that tells the story of National’s history. Continental Airlines needed club space near its gates, which are located in the connector are between Terminals A and B/C. The north half of the original dining room provided the ideal location. Out of respect for this unique space, the airline deviated from its standard club design and used materials and fabrics that complement the historic interior. The Continental Club is open the evening of the Ball to tour members only.
The Art Deco Society of Washington gratefully thanks the sponsors whose generous contributions have made this ball possible.
For more information about the ball, phone (202) 298-1100 or send email to ball@adsw.org.