It was never a practical building. By the time it opened in 1962, the Trans World Flight Center terminal in New York in the United States was already outdated. The first jumbo jets were developed while it was still under construction, and so from the start, the building could not keep up with passenger numbers.

However, the building by Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen was spectacular in its own way. At the time, it was hailed as the world’s most distinctive example of corporate show piece architecture, and it went on to become the subject of countless doctoral dissertations before it was closed down completely in 2001.