Right this very moment, JFK airport's Pan Am Worldport, the 1960 terminal that was an icon for techno-modernism and symbol of the Jet Age, is being dismantled. The "sometimes-iconic, sometimes-maligned" terminal, as Architizer once described, closed officially on May 24, exactly 53 years after it opened. Per Gizmodo, American corporations oft featured the Worldport's 114-foot pizza-pan roof (part UFO, part brutalist cocktail umbrella, and all 1960s glamour) in ads of the Mad Men era. In June, the National Trust for Historic Preservation attempted to raise awareness about the impending doom of the building, but without any regulatory teeth to halt the Worldport's destruction, their efforts were fruitless. Workers began removing asbestos and lead paint earlier this summer, and some say the Jetsons-style structure may not be completely dismantled until 2015.
· All Worldport coverage [Curbed NY]
· JFK's Retro-Futuristic Pan Am Terminal Is Slowly Being Demolished [Gizmodo]
· Save The Pan Am Worldport At JFK! [Architizer]
· More Than Just 'Endangered,' a J.F.K. Terminal Is to Be Demolished [NYT]
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