Budget
issues matter little to the end user, often a harried traveler who sees getting
through the airport as a necessary hassle.
As Pat
Askew, of Perkins + Will, said at the recent symposium, passengers want to get
in and out of airports as quickly as possible, but "you can get stranded
at the airport, and then it becomes important" to make it a place that
people can enjoy.
Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport makes itself attractive to travelers with art exhibits
around the terminal and concourses, such as the collection of stone sculptures
from Zimbabwe in the lower-level walkway between the T concourse and Concourse
A.
"We're
looking at creating a sense of place, using some art to do that," Hartsfield-Jackson
assistant general manager Dan Molloy said. It can "maybe help the
passenger relax -- give them a distraction they can focus on, if you will,
while they wait."
The
airport plans $5 million worth of art for the international terminal, including
a large-scale project of "functional art" -- a 1,000-foot wall
of glass panels laminated with patterns of tree bark along the tunnel between
Concourse E and the international terminal. Its function will be to divide
passengers who have been cleared by U.S. authorities from those who haven't.
One of the
key benefits of the international terminal will be allowing arriving passengers
to avoid rechecking bags before leaving the airport, as they now must do in
order to get baggage to the main terminal.
Functional
art allows the airport to get multiple benefits out of the requirement in the
public art master plan that to set aside 1 percent of certain monies including
airport construction funds for art.
"It
is a factor that we do consider," Molloy said. "If we didn't put this
piece of artwork in, we would have to do something else for a wall."
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