Passengers to Be Pampered in New Airport Terminal

Two decades after Orange County opened its airport for the future, detailed models were presented Tuesday for a brand new John Wayne Airport passenger terminal.

Scheduled to open April 1, 1990, the $296.6-million terminal and parking facility will be the county’s biggest-ever public works project. The terminal will feature three skylighted, metal-skinned vaults that are metaphors for fuselages, according to designer Andrew Cohen.

The existing 22,000-square-foot terminal, built in 1967, opened with two airlines and was supposed to serve the county’s air travel needs far into the future. But it has been crowded for years and an embarrassment to local government.

‘Eddie Martin’s Airport’

The new building’s open and spacious interior--about as different as possible from the current terminal--will use stone materials, palms and other landscaping. The overall effect will be a combination of a hotel atrium lobby and a shopping mall with terraced restaurants--a far cry from the barns and dirt runway of “Eddie Martin’s Airport,” which became Orange County Airport in 1940.

Big, low-slung parking garages, like giant wings at rest, will flank the 337,900-square-foot terminal. A 400-foot gap between them will provide a clear view of the terminal from MacArthur Boulevard.

Two airline ticketing areas, connected by a central court, will be at either end of the structure. Fourteen aircraft gates and passenger lounges will be behind the ticketing area, security checkpoints and central court.

The court, described by the architects as a “meet and greet” area, will be in the form of a square placed so that one corner points outward toward MacArthur Boulevard, creating a glass-enclosed, visual “greeting” to people at street-level. John Wayne’s statue will be located in the court.

“The openness, the light and the landscaping will give arriving passengers a feeling of Orange County,” said Jack Spak, senior project adviser for one of three firms working with lead architect Leason Pomeroy and his staff.

The models unveiled Tuesday include four baggage carousels compared to the one conveyor belt now in use.

The new terminal will be much closer to the San Diego Freeway than the existing building, requiring new access roads.

A two-level roadway will bring arriving traffic to the upper level of the terminal, which will be the flight departure area. Arriving passengers will leave the airport from the lower level.

With terminal construction only months away, project officials are negotiating with Caltrans for special freeway ramps to move airport traffic to and from the Costa Mesa Freeway without use of MacArthur Boulevard or the San Diego Freeway, both next to the facility.

A new entrance at Michelson Drive will supplement the existing entrances on Campus Drive and MacArthur Boulevard.

Pomeroy, hired by the Board of Supervisors earlier this year, said the project--financed through sale of airport revenue bonds--was “challenging and rewarding,” but he credited a special design team for most of the work. “You could say that it would be difficult to fail,” Pomeroy said, referring to the existing terminal. “Anything would be an improvement.”

The models unveiled Tuesday pleased members of the board, who have been under pressure from both airlines and from Newport Beach residents. The airlines have sued to expand service while the neighbors, citing concerns about noise and traffic, sued to block expansion.

Designed to handle 400,000 passengers annually, the existing airport now has nine airlines that last year served 4.1 million passengers. Under terms of a 1985 out-of-court settlement of a noise and traffic lawsuit filed by Newport Beach against the county, the new facility can serve a maximum of 8.4 million passengers annually--below the 10.84 million originally proposed by county supervisors, and not even close to the 11-million-passenger market predicted for the county in 1990, or the 22 million expected by 2005.

Supervisors praised the design.

“My friend John Wayne would be pleased and you know where he’s located,” said an exuberant Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, referring to the late movie actor and Newport Beach resident for whom the airport is named.

“It will be one of the most prestigious airport terminals in the world,” predicted Riley, whose district includes the airport and who made the new facility his major goal before retiring. “I’m on an emotional high.”

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said: “It’s a very exciting design. It integrates a lot of facilities in an attractive and aesthetic look.”

Supervisor Don R. Roth added: “I’ve traveled all over, to places like Japan and Korea, and you know, they could always boast that they had the most modern airports. And when visitors come here, they say this is a great place, but how do you explain your rotten airport? The new design will give us something to be proud of. Just the baggage-handling improvements alone will be worth it. You won’t have to jump up and down like a yo-yo just to find your bags.”

The airstrip’s postage-stamp site, which could not be enlarged, left only one place for the new terminal to be constructed without closing the existing facility--the northeast corner of the field, near the interchange of the San Diego Freeway and MacArthur Boulevard.

To make room for the new terminal, general aviation aircraft parked at that location have been moved to the west side of the airfield, near Red Hill Avenue, along with several airport service businesses.

New construction is scheduled to begin with grading in January or February, airport officials said.

The existing passenger terminal will be used for general aviation once the new facility is open. The airport is already the busiest general (non-airline) aviation facility in the United States.

The settlement agreement with Newport Beach also limits the number of passengers to be served annually and the types of aircraft. It allows no more than nine planes as large as a Boeing 767 and five as large as a Boeing 757.

Also under the agreement, available parking must be held to 8,400 spaces.

And until 1990, the settlement limits the airport to an average of 55 flights per day, no more than 39 of which can be by older, noisier aircraft. Between 1990 and 2005, the limit is 73 flights, of which only 39 can be older jets.

However, there are few restrictions on jetliners such as the BAe-146, which generate noise levels less than the levels regulated by the county.

The airport’s current legal cap is 4.75 million passengers served annually.

The average number of daily flights has been about 89; the settlement agreement does not affect that figure, unless flights have to be reduced to fall within the passenger capacity limit.

NEW TERMINAL AT A GLANCE

Ground breaking: Spring, 1988

Opens: April, 1990

Cost: $296.6 million

Size: 337,900 square feet

(current terminal = 29,000 square feet)

Passengers: Cap of 8.4 million per year

(current cap = 4.75 million)

Parking: 8,400 vehicles

(current = 4,377)

Enclosed boarding gates: 14 (none now)