Saarinen’s TWA was obviously selling a mostly white middle-class fantasy, the upbeat 60s, the airline beloved by Elizabeth Taylor and the Pope, who got his own gold-painted hideaway, with its own oculus, carved into a corner of Saarinen’s Ambassador Lounge. 

Within the first couple of weeks there were half a dozen marriage proposals
Within the first couple of weeks there were half a dozen marriage proposals - Guys dropping to their knees in the Sunken Lounge and on the cantilevered catwalk — popping the question on the Solari split-flap departure board or in “Connie,” the 1958 TWA Lockheed Constellation Starliner parked outside on the roof of a new underground conference center, the plane’s fuselage converted into a 60’s-era cocktail lounge. © Stefano Ukmar for The New York Times

The hotel is a theme park for that fantasy version of 1962, though I have trouble picturing a busy corporate traveler today attending meetings at the conference center feeling charmed when a costumed employee responds with a blank stare to a request for directions to CitiField or for the hotel’s Wi-Fi passcode because there was no such thing as CitiField or Wi-Fi in 1962.

“The place will evolve,” Mr. Morse said, “like all things in the built environment. Our objective is to continue to experiment within this extraordinary piece of art.” 

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The rooftop pool offers a view of planes taking off and landing
The rooftop pool offers a view of planes taking off and landing © Stefano Ukmar for The New York Times