In the unofficial race to out-infinity pool other infinity pools around the world, the forthcoming TWA Hotel at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport has quite the contender. Picture this: The former TWA Flight Center—a midcentury, Eero Saarinen–designed classic—is being rebooted as a 512-room hotel at JFK’s Terminal 5 (aka the JetBlue terminal) and it looks to be the kind of place that changes our minds about airport hotels. It comes with a Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant, a cocktail lounge inside a restored 1950s Lockheed Constellation L-1649A airplane, and atop it all, an observation deck and swimming pool.
Travelers can check into their retro-inspired hotel room, with midcentury modern–inspired furniture (and seven-panel, 4.5-inch-thick windows), throw on a bathing suit, and head to the rooftop. Here, they can order a Mile High Spritz, put their feet in the water, and sip away as planes park, pirouette, and hurtle on and off Runway 4 Left/22 Right (for all the plane-spotters out there). The 63-by-20-foot infinity pool is open year-round, which means that in the dead of winter, it can be heated to 100 degrees, making it JFK’s first self-proclaimed “pool-cuzzi.” (And its first pool. And hotel.)
The TWA hotel press team says the infinity pool is “inspired by the infinity edge pool at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d’Antibes, France,” which might be the first time anywhere near JFK has been compared to anywhere along the Mediterranean. “The swimming spot has a beach entry and underwater seating—not to mention a gleaming TWA logo mosaic in the signature colors of gold and red,” per the TWA statement.
But how will it compare to, say, the infinity pool overlooking the runway at Dominican Republic’s Punta Cana International Airport? Or Marina Bay Sands infinity pool set 57 stories above the Singapore skyline? Or the Oberoi Wildflower Hall in Shimla, India, overlooking the Greater Himalayas? Please check each one out and let us know: The TWA Hotel opens May 15, 2019.
