Air Force One may not use commercial airports, but Donald Trump has nonetheless taken the initiative to plan a major overall of Dulles International Airport, the government-owned DC area international airport.
Alongside Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Trump revealed the plans of the $22.5 billion renovation in the Oval Office this afternoon. The President emphasized the “bipartisan” nature of this project, which is included alongside the administration’s other efforts to “Make Washington DC Safe and Beautiful Again.”
“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you don’t want to go and be subjected to this airport. Because this airport – it’s a terrible place to be,” Trump said. “And I believe in a few years it will be rated as the best ever in the country.”
In true Apprentice fashion, Trump turned the project into a competition for prospective contractors. He asked several design and engineering firms who were competing for the contract to create three-dimensional models and bring them to the White House so that he would be able to visualize the proposed designs better.
The President was in his element as he revealed the finalized plans this afternoon, using a small laser pointer to explain the flow of traffic on the three-dimensional model and poster-sized imaginative images of the airport’s future appearance. He seemed to momentarily step into his past life as he enthusiastically talked of the hotel that would be constructed nearby and of the luxury Dulles users could expect to experience.
Trump also highlighted his favorite aspects of the project – constructing “the largest [parking] garage in the world” right next to the terminal, adding an underground U-shaped train system and thousands of new square feet in the concourses to streamline passage through the airport and updates to the interior design with, what else, a Trump-esque twist: marble and gold accents.
Last year, when initially announcing the renovation, Trump called the airport “incorrectly designed” – “it should be a great airport, and it’s not a good airport at all. It’s a terrible airport.” The average Dulles user might have to agree.
The celebrated Eero Saarinen-designed terminal building will become the “foyer,” Duffy said. The unpopular mobile lounges, nicknamed “people movers,” will be the first thing scrapped. Duffy described them this afternoon as looking like “something out of Star Wars” – not because they are exciting and futuristic, but because they move slowly and haven’t been updated since the airport’s construction in 1962 – “a long time ago.” One of them even crashed last November, hospitalizing 18 people.
The proximity of the parking garage to the airport will also be a popular move; Cockburn overheard one disgruntled traveler on the Metro yesterday complain that he chose not to drive to the airport because parking was so far away, “you’d have to call an Uber” to drive you from your car to the entrance.
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