The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has chosen HOK to design a serious growth to Washington Dulles Worldwide Airport in northern Virginia. Persevering with the airport’s Tier 2 concourse improvement program that started final fall with the beginning of development of the preliminary 435,000-sq-ft, 14-gate part by Turner Building Co., the venture will add one other 1.735 million sq ft that features 22 new gates for worldwide flights and a brand new 176,000-sq-ft federal inspection providers facility.
HOK additionally will design a brand new central utility plant for airport infrastructure, upgrades to ramp management techniques and baggage dealing with providers and the preliminary 1.13-million-sq-ft part of a separate “Tier 3” concourse. The Dulles AeroTrain will hyperlink the brand new services with the airport’s fundamental terminal and different concourses.
The concourses are a part of a $7-billion package deal of facility infrastructure investments that the airport expects to finish through the subsequent 15 years. Funding for the $500-million preliminary part, referred to as Tier 2 (East) and slated for completion in late 2026, is being offered partly by a $40-million grant awarded below the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation.
Whereas HOK is scheduled to ship its design with a watch towards starting development in 2026, an authority spokesperson says no schedule has been set for choosing a development crew.
Justin Wortman, HOK regional aviation and transportation chief, says the growth helps place Dulles Airport for achievement for the following 40-50 years.
“It’s going to improve Dulles’ airside features, future-proof the power, enhance its flexibility, and create lovely and open passenger areas that elevate the traveler expertise,” he provides.
In keeping with HOK, the Tier 2 concourse growth will seamlessly combine with the preliminary part, guaranteeing a clean and intuitive passenger expertise that may present readability for passengers, notably these touring abroad.
“Because the entrance door to the Nation’s Capital, we wish to create an elevated expertise for each arriving and departing worldwide passengers,” says HOK Design Principal Peter Ruggiero. He provides that alongside reflecting the status and expectations of Washington, D.C. and the Nationwide Capital area, “we’re additionally incorporating present tendencies in worldwide arrivals processing to streamline passenger circulation and improve operational effectivity.”
To assist the authority’s sustainability objectives, Ruggiero says the HOK crew additionally will determine the simplest design options that enhance vitality effectivity and resilience.
As metropolitan Washington’s main hub for abroad flights, Dulles site visitors has rebounded for the reason that 2020 pandemic. Final yr noticed the airport deal with a document 10.38 million worldwide passengers, an 11% enhance over 2023’s complete. Dulles at present operates 113 gates, practically half of that are situated in 550,000-sq-ft Concourse C/D, constructed greater than 40 years in the past and envisioned as a short lived facility till everlasting concourses might be constructed.
Even because the airport builds new services geared towards mid-21st century journey, Wortman says Finnish architect Eero Saarinen’s distinctive unique fundamental terminal constructing, opened in 1962, will stay a design touchstone.
“Our purpose is to create the following era of nice airport structure, studying from Saarinen’s rules whereas evolving them for contemporary wants,” he says.
