What Building 151 Actually Was
Building 151 at JFK Airport was the Pan American World Airways terminal. Designed by architect Wallace K. Harrison and completed in December 1960, it sat on the northwest side of the airfield at what is now roughly the western end of Jamaica Bay. The structure looked nothing like the typical mid-century rectangular airport terminal. Its roof consisted of a series of interlocking concrete shells that resembled upturned boats or tent flaps held aloft by slender columns. The design was supposed to evoke the feeling of flight — the idea of arriving at a "Globe Terminal" for the jet age. Inside, there was the famous "Worldport" lounge with its massive circular windows, a departures level with direct gate access, and a baggage handling system that connected below the terminal floor. Pan Am was the dominant carrier there for over two decades. The terminal handled international arrivals from Europe, South America, and beyond. Travelers passed through immigration processing in a dedicated area, then moved through a customs hall before heading up to the departures level or into the famous waiting lounges. The building could handle roughly 15,000 passengers per day at peak operation. That was enormous for 1960. Most airports then were managing a fraction of that volume.
The Forgotten Gem Of Jfk Airport Uncovering The Hidden History Of Building 151
When Pan Am's fortunes collapsed and United Airlines took over the terminal's airspace in the late 1980s, the building became functionally obsolete for the operations it was designed around. The terminal was demolished starting in 1983 and completed by 1986. What sits on that land today is part of Terminal 1, operated by various international carriers including Lufthansa, Air France, and Turkish Airlines. There is nothing visible of Building 151 from the current airport grounds. The architectural significance of Building 151 extends well beyond its function as a transit hub. Harrison's team had previously designed the original UN Headquarters in New York and the first Terminal 1 at Idlewild — which was actually JFK's original terminal before Building 151 was constructed. Their approach here was more ambitious. The shell roof structure used a thin concrete vault system that required careful engineering to span the wide open spaces without interior support columns. The resulting ceiling heights created a sense of volume that was unusual for airport terminals of that era. You walked into a space that felt more like a cathedral than a transit facility. The interior design was equally deliberate. The color palette drew from Pan Am's corporate identity — blues, whites, and teak wood paneling. Lighting was designed to simulate natural daylight as much as possible, reducing the disorientation that comes from windowless transit spaces. The floor plan separated arriving and departing passengers more cleanly than most competitors offered at the time. Baggage carousels were positioned at the lower level with direct underground connections to the processing areas. This kind of separation of flows was still novel in 1960 and has since become standard practice at major international airports worldwide.
What Remains and How to Find It
Since the building was demolished, physical documentation is the primary resource. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey maintains some records, but they are not organized for public research in an intuitive way. The New York City Municipal Archives holds architectural drawings and photograph collections from the original development of Kennedy Airport. These include measured drawings of the shell roof structure, elevation views of the facade, and interior photographs taken during the building's operational period. The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum has artifacts from Building 151 in their collection, including signage fragments and a portion of the original Pan Am Globeport globe that once sat in the main concourse. The Museum of the City of New York also holds relevant materials, particularly from their architecture and design archives. If you are pursuing this research, I would recommend starting with the Port Authority's archived document request process. They require a written request specifying the materials you need, and responses typically come within three to four weeks. The drawings you can access are usually available as microfilm or photocopies — digital scans are not routinely provided unless you specifically request them and agree to any usage restrictions. I ran into a specific problem when trying to locate the exact footprint of Building 151 on historical site plans. The aerial photographs from the 1960s show the terminal clearly, but the overlays used by the Port Authority for zoning purposes are not georeferenced to modern coordinates. I spent about a day cross-referencing the 1964 aerial survey photos with the current Terminal 1 footprint using GPS coordinates from the JFK field office records. The building's eastern edge aligns approximately with the current southern boundary of the Lufthansa hangar area, and its western edge is roughly 200 feet east of where the current taxiway B intersection sits. This matters if you are trying to understand sightlines or spatial relationships that the original architects had in mind.
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Common Mistakes People Make When Researching This
Most sources conflate Building 151 with the original 1948 Terminal 1, which was also called Terminal 151 in early Port Authority documents before the Pan Am building replaced it. These are two different structures separated by twelve years. The 1948 terminal was a simple rectangular building with a flat roof, demolished in the late 1950s to make room for the Harrison design. If you find references to "Terminal 151" dated before 1960, they are talking about the earlier structure. After 1960, Building 151 refers exclusively to the Pan Am terminal. Another issue is the confusion around the name "Worldport." Worldport referred to the entire Pan Am complex at JFK, not just Building 151. The complex included the main terminal building, a separate cargo facility to the south, and a vehicle parking structure. Some sources treat these as interchangeable. They are not. The cargo facility was a distinct structure that remained in operation even after the main terminal was demolished, serving United Airlines until the late 1990s. It was eventually removed during the Terminal 1 expansion project. The most persistent myth involves the building's structural integrity. You will find claims online that the concrete shell roof was inherently unstable and required constant repair. This is partially true but significantly exaggerated. The shells did experience some cracking in the 1970s due to thermal stress and settling, which is common in any thin-shell concrete structure. The repairs were routine maintenance, not evidence of systemic failure. The building served its intended function without major structural issues for roughly twenty years, which is a normal lifespan for this type of construction in an airport environment where the exposure conditions are harsh.
How to Access Historical Materials Effectively
If you want to do this research properly, start with three specific collections. First, the Port Authority's Historical Documents folder in their administrative archives contains the original contract specifications, contractor correspondence, and inspection reports. These are often overlooked because they are filed under "Project Files 1958-1961" rather than labeled anything recognizable. Second, the Pan Am Historical Foundation has a digital repository of employee photographs, operational manuals, and internal newsletters that describe day-to-day life in the building. Third, the New York Public Library's Milstein United States History, Local History and Genealogy Division holds the Walter O'Malley papers, which include correspondence about the terminal's construction and the political negotiations that surrounded it. The Port Authority records have a significant limitation. Many documents from the 1960s were microfilmed in the 1980s as a preservation measure, but the microfilm catalogs are incomplete. You cannot search by keyword across the collection. You have to know which box and reel to request. I recommend calling the Port Authority's research desk directly rather than submitting a generic inquiry. Mention Building 151 specifically and ask for the Pan Am Terminal project files from 1958 through 1962. They will pull the correct box numbers and you can request copies or view the originals on-site at their headquarters at 33 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan. The Pan Am Historical Foundation website has a section on JFK that covers Building 151 in reasonable detail, but it stops short of the architectural specifics. What it does well is provide the human perspective — passenger experiences, staff anecdotes, and the operational changes that happened during the building's later years. The foundation accepts donations and in return provides access to some restricted materials. It is not free, but the membership fee is modest and the photographs alone are worth it if you are doing visual research. The membership also grants you access to their private message board where collectors and researchers share findings that never make it into published sources.
What This Research Can Actually Help You Do
The practical applications of this research depend on what you are working on. If you are an architectural historian, the surviving drawings and photographs allow you to reconstruct the original spatial experience of the building with reasonable accuracy. The shell roof geometry has been modeled by several independent researchers using the original structural drawings, and the models confirm that the interior volumes were significantly larger than exterior photographs suggest. The thin concrete vaults created a ceiling plane that appeared to float above the interior spaces. If you are working on adaptive reuse proposals or historical preservation advocacy, the most useful document you can produce is a condition report based on any remaining physical evidence. There are no standing portions of Building 151 to assess. The closest you can get is the adjacent cargo facility's remaining structure, which shares some construction techniques and materials. The cargo building used the same type of precast concrete paneling on its exterior cladding, though its roof system was conventional steel truss construction rather than the shell design. This gives you a reference point for the finish quality and material specifications that were standard for the project. For general interest or educational purposes, the story of Building 151 is essentially the story of Pan Am itself. The terminal was conceived during the company's golden age and demolished during its decline. The timing is not coincidental. The terminal's closure in the early 1980s coincided with Pan Am's financial troubles, the arrival of the 747 making older terminal designs seem cramped, and the broader deregulation of the airline industry that changed how airports operated. Understanding Building 151 requires understanding all of that context simultaneously. The building was not just a structure. It was a physical expression of a specific moment in aviation history — one where the romantic ideal of international travel met the practical realities of mass air transport.
