TWA HOTEL

Is This Cloud Nine?

Located at JFK International Airport in Queens, New York, the TWA Hotel opened on May 15, 2019 to the delight of world travelers, designers, architects, and countless who hold a memory of its iconic past. 

The new hotel has repurposed the former head-house of the TWA flight center airline terminal as its lobby and public area.  

Designed in 1962 by renowned architect Eero Saarinen, it remains a groundbreaking building. It’s curvaceous architecture boasts not a single straight line!  You can just imagine Howard Hughes obsessing over every detail as it was built.

The hotel includes the addition of two low-lying buildings on either side of the existing head-house, accommodating over 500 guest rooms.  

It's Easy To Spot Us

Samuelson was commissioned to provide furniture in several prominent areas of the hotel. The guestrooms, sleek and efficient, include rich finishes, a beautiful channel tufted headboard or headboard / desk combo unit (depending on the room type) with convenient LED lighting and data ports, metal detailing and cantilevered night stands. 

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LED lighting accentuates the bar, desk and wardrobe units with complimentary stone tops and metal framework. 

When it comes to LEDs, we exclusively use the best product on the market.  We do that for a few reasons:

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• We only want the very best going into our fine furniture.

• We use LED that is fully UL rated specifically for use in furniture. Why is this important? If an inferior LED product is used there is a serious risk of fire or other breakdown issues that can take place.

• The product in most of our applications is “plug & play,” meaning there is no cutting, splicing or soldering needed when installing our furniture. Simply plug it in and it is good to go!​

Public Area

The public area beckons travelers to relax in style and comfort. Our beautiful custom banquets outfitted with convenient fold down armrests and drink trays add eye appeal and comfort to the space. 

Another notable feature is a unique glass screen divider found outside the elevators on each floor. Engineered to beautifully buffer the guestroom hallways from the elevators, these LED lit glass and metal dividers add an element of elegance to the area. 

Come Fly With Me

A 1958 Lockheed Continental Airliner, fondly named “The Connie” has found new life as a cocktail lounge. Perched on the tarmac to be seen and frequented by visitors, this transformative, fun space is to socialize, meet friends, and enjoy the vibe.  

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Samuelson’s scope of work included the somewhat daunting restoration and rebuilding of the original seats of the plane.  The poor condition of these seats (some of which still contained cigarette butts in the ash trays!) necessitated stripping down to their bare frame, sandblasting, rebuilding to original design, and fully reupholstering with retro 1958 materials. And yes… the seats still do recline!

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In addition, we provided banquette seating with their flip down armrests and drink trays that run along the fuselage.

This example is one of the many reasons our customers come to us: our ability to not only build exceptional product, but have the experience and mindset to engineer pieces for their specific requirements.