The Weight of the Wait

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Rex Pe

Psychological Impact of Long Lines

According to researchers and customer-loyalty experts like Nick Wreden, the average person will wait in lines between two and five years of their life. Unfortunately for travelers, the present-day airport experience is all about waiting: wait to park, wait to check-in, wait to be screened, wait to board. For frequent flyers this could translate into as much as 10 years stuck in a queue.

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Counter-Intuitive Futures: Will Airport Terminals Really Be Better Through Technology?

The “Fight Deck” at SFO Terminal 3, Boarding Area E, developed by Gensler in partnership with Razorfish. Image © Joe Fletcher.

This post is part of a series related to the 2016 Gensler Design Forecast, highlighting trends that will transform how we live, work and play in the next decade.

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Unexpectedly Expected, Part Two

Image © Paul Rivera

Imagine for a moment that you’re enjoying a beautiful New York day on a roof terrace with your family. The kids are romping atop a small landscaped hill, you’re sitting at a rooftop picnic table enjoying a view of nearby planes taking off. Your dog is within sight, too—playing in an area reserved for dogs, rolling around with a few canine friends. Then imagine something unexpected: you’re on a rooftop… at the airport.

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Designing the DEN Westin Hotel & Transit Center

Image © Gensler

On November 19th, 2015, the Denver International Airport (DIA) Westin Hotel & Transit Center will open to guests. Not only will it embody an entirely new type of travel experience, the design also represents a great story of collaboration. We’ve had the honor of working on this project from the start, and along the way we’ve adjusted to many shifts in team and budget as we designed and created the project. Here is the story of that collaboration and its evolution.

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