On the way to Arizona last month, my first plane change was at Dulles (Washington Dulles International Airport, IAD). While taxiing away from the gate I caught a glimpse of the original air traffic control tower and took some photos out the window (Figure 1). I had first seen this tower in 1973 when I also took some photos from the stunning 1962 terminal building. I have fond memories of those old black and white negatives because taking them required some airport shenanigans that maybe no one has done since.
In June, 1973 I had just graduated from college and was travelling with my parents to Kenya to observe an eclipse and go on a wildlife safari. We had arrived at Dulles early and I was already keeping a promise to myself to more aggressively pursue photography. That is, I was wandering around taking photos (Figure 2). I noticed a huge wooden ladder outside the main terminal, inspected it for a minute, and returned to where my parents were waiting. I left my sport coat with them and told them I was going to go take some more photos and would be back in plenty of time to board the flight.
In 1973, there were few security cameras and no army of security personnel. But due to the huge glass walls of the terminal, the big ladder was in plain view of hundreds of people inside. As a new college graduate, I had decided that it was time to make my life more consequential, so I just climbed up that ladder like I was the only reason someone had put that ladder there. In a minute I was on the roof of the building Eero Saarinen considered his greatest work. The first photo I took reveals exactly where I was (Figures 3 and 4).
The second photo I took from the roof was of a mobile lounge by the southwest corner of the terminal (Figure 5). The western edge of the roof is in the frame, indicating that I was just walking around up there. The mobile lounge was key to Saarinen’s architectural vision of the airport terminal as a monument to the civilized, and civic, future of air travel — separated from the industrial and corporate world of planes, fuel, and other services. That vision died as corporations, not municipalities, took control of air travel. This is the video Eero Saarinen made in 1958 to convince everyone that his vision was correct.
The next photo was taken from the southwest corner of the roof by clambering up the up-turned lip. I don’t remember how hard it was to get a clear view of the control tower, but I managed it. This photo was a full portrait of the iconic tower (Figure 6).
There are lots of old and new photos of the Eero Saarinen control tower at Dulles. I have looked at a hundred of them online, and none is from the angle of the photo in Figure 6. I have never seen another photo of the tower taken from the terminal roof. I guess they didn’t leave that ladder in place for long.
I rejoined my parents in time to don the sport coat and ride a mobile lounge to the plane that took us to Rome. I never mentioned to them where I had been, and never printed the photos I had taken (I have never seen them enlarged until now). The next photo on that roll of film, taken the next day, is Figure 7. This was a remarkable two-day lesson in the history of public architecture.
As I taxied at Dulles for take-off to Denver on New Years Day, I took a photo of the Dulles ground operations control tower with the historic 1962 tower in the background (Figure 8). This is not the new FAA air traffic control tower (which I never saw, Figure 9).
After seeing Eero’s iconic tower at Dulles (IAD) last month, I was paying attention for the rest of my journey. Next stop was the unimpressive FAA tower at Denver (Figure 10). On the way home I got photos of the modern, tall, FAA towers at Chicago (Figure 11) and Reagan (Figure 12). And then home to the 1989 tower at Burlington (Figure 13).
After that successful start to the 1973 trip, I was strangely content on the flight to Rome. I was confident that I would make the effort required to capture some worthwhile images. No more ladders got involved, but maybe starting out strong made a difference: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eQ6dHTkrSnSCxXuDA