When it was built, the steel and concrete, gull-wing-shaped structure designed by the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen was so evocative of flight, the mere sight of it was supposed to initiate the journey.

“He wanted to provide a building in which the human being felt uplifted, important and full of anticipation,” the architect’s wife, Aline B. Saarinen, told George Scullin in his 1968 book, “International Airport: The Story of Kennedy Airport and U.S. Commercial Aviation.”

On that, Saarinen was successful. The T.W.A. Flight Center, as the terminal was called, was bold, imaginative and elegant, according to critics, praise that was matched by what was said about the airline it housed. For many years, T.W.A. was the country’s sole airline with both a vibrant domestic network and international routes, according to New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Working out of the T.W.A. Flight Center was “an overwhelmingly exciting experience, and everyone around me felt the same,” said Hugh Schoelzel, who went to work for T.W.A. as a flight engineer in 1967 and retired as vice president of corporate safety in 2004.

By the ’80s, T.W.A. was experiencing financial trouble. A refresh of the terminal was planned, but not carried out. In 2001, when T.W.A. was acquired by American Airlines, the terminal returned to the care of the landlord, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It sits empty in front of Terminal 5, home of JetBlue.