What follows Pierre L’Enfant’s iconic city grid for Washington, DC, which features a Washington Metro-inspired entrance and cherry blossom-themed art?
The new United Club at nearby Dulles International Airport (IAD).
“We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from the Washington area,” said Travis Christ, director of club and lounge programs at United Airlines, as he stood in the space’s future central atrium on a muggy June morning.
Club updates: United is about to open the largest airline lounge in the United States, and the next one could be an “even bigger one”
The 40,000-square-foot hall will be among the largest halls in North America when it opens this fall. The space is one of three megalounges United plans to open this year, including a Texas-sized 54,000-square-foot facility at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and a smaller 25,000-square-foot lounge at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
Those square feet mean the new United Club will seat 650 people at a time and give travelers the extra space Cristo said is their top request.
Dulles’ makeover paves way for new United Club
The new United Club is part of a long-overdue redevelopment of the IAD. The space is located on the second floor of the new 14-door E concourse which premieres this fall. The new concourse is located directly above the Concourse C AeroTrain station; You will find the room just above the escalators and elevators from the train to the concourse.
Concourse E will replace the ground-level Concourse A doors that currently serve United Express regional flights. He “temporary“The Concourse C/D facility that dates back to the mid-1980s and currently serves nearly all of United’s primary flights to and from the airport will be replaced by future phases of Concourse E.
The new esplanade is a spacious and bright space with white walls and wood-tone decorations. Concessions, including national chains like Dunkin’ and Wendy’s and local favorites like Rusty Taco and Korean fried chicken chain Bonchon, are scattered throughout the space.
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As for mobile rooms? They will remain for the foreseeable future until they can be replaced by the AeroTrain, Richard Golinowski, IAD manager and vice president of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, said during a tour Wednesday.
United Club pays tribute to the District
Christ, showing the United Club’s under-construction space to reporters Wednesday, said the design is based on L’Enfant’s 1791 street plan for DC.
“We started with, ‘What would L’Enfant do with this?'” he said, describing the district’s unique layout of a grid of streets interspersed with diagonal streets named after all 50 U.S. states.
“The design itself is similar to the avenues in Washington,” he added. “There are no dead ends, there are no dead ends anywhere. You have these circular areas where avenues with state names slope. The whole design is inspired by Washington itself. It was very natural to do it.”
The art in the room features the aforementioned Metro station-inspired entrance and a cherry blossom-themed mobile that will hang from the ceiling in the center of the space. It will include a buffet food service area and a bar but no showers.
And when asked about the future of United’s three existing clubs at Concourse C/D, Christ said they will all remain open, but renovations are planned. The future of those rooms will “evolve” as Dulles’ renovation progresses.
“Art and design are very much about Washington,” he said.
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