The Airchive use to have some pictures of Concourse C, which received many of these improvements, but I can’t locate the pictures. Its biggest flaw was that it housed the fourth largest hub in the country in the world’s then 7th busiest airport, and its facilities could not handle the traffic flow.Īfter construction for Midfield was well underway, the airport made numerous improvements to Davey: new paint, new carpet (recycled from the airport show, IIRC), new seating (same as Midfield), new lighting, new/larger bathrooms, etc. The Davey Terminal, OTOH, while 60s construction was still a very functional facility. And that was with the concourses shut/walled off - imagine what the bill looked like in the 2000s, when they were fully operational!
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In the mid-2010s the Detroit Free Press reported that WCAA was spending a small fortune on repairs & maintenance and utilities to keep the facility open, as the airports’ offices were housed in it. Let’s be clear: the LC Smith Terminal was an obsoleted facility, built for the pre-jet era and heavily modified / expanded to remain functional. My earlier point is largely that Wayne County / DTW were so desperate for a new airport, they intentionally neglected the Davey Terminal. When Midfield turned 20, it’s still arguably the best. When the Davey Terminal turned 20yo, NW/DTW was making pans to replace it. And the facility is 20 years younger, the construction much smaller yet the price tag much larger ($4B). Many portions are very institutionalized, like DTW’s North Terminal, and use colors to compensate. SLC is very similar to DTW, but lacks the detail, high ceilings and natural lighting. In 2018, the Detroit Free Press spoke to experts who speculated the original construction, which cost $1.7B in 2018 dollars, would cost in excess of $7B in 2018 dollars to replicate.
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Its biggest advantage is cost - a construction boom in the 2000s caused a surge in labor and inputs. Today it still is in the upper echelon of US airports, not to mention being able to handle winter storms like it's just another day.ĭTW is arguably the best airport experience in the country. From a clean-sheet modeled after the success of DEN types, which wasn't a bad thing.
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I always liked the Northwest WorldGateway branding. DTW McNamara is a fine terminal today compared to the dumpster fire the old terminals were.