Houston Terminal Makes the Grade

June 27, 2013
George Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Terminal B gets an A for its airy, bright space crammed with creature comforts

PULLQUOTES:

“We felt it was important to balance the local flavor and give people a little taste of Houston as they pass through the airport."

Kate Gebo, United Airlines vice president of corporate real estate.

“Terminal B was built with more of the features our customers told us they value. Our customers said they wanted better concessions, better connectivity, and a better place to relax in before their flights.”

Kate Gebo, United Airlines vice president of corporate real estate.

The ABCs of airport terminal design might go something like this:

  • A is for airy, airport hold room that passengers want to spend time in,
  • B is for bigger, better and brighter space, and
  • C is for countless concessions and creature comforts.

And if that is how it goes, it is clear that United Airlines boned up on its ABCs when it renovated Terminal B at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The new $95 million terminal, dedicated to United Express regional flights, is four times the size, offers 17 times the number of concessionaires, and features a spacious hold room with twice the seating and many, many more restrooms.

 “This project is about improving the entire customer experience,” says Kate Gebo, United Airlines vice president of corporate real estate. “Terminal B was built with more of the features our customers told us they value. Our customers said they wanted better concessions, better connectivity, and a better place to relax in before their flights.”

The first phase of this project—15 completed gates—opened for business May 1. The airline will add 15 additional gates by year’s end. When complete, Terminal B will serve as the airline’s primary Houston facility for United Express flights operated by its regional partners (ExpressJet, SkyWest, Trans States and Shuttle America), which dispatch more than 300 flights from IAH daily to business and leisure destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

New Lease, New Look

It’s safe to say that before renovations resurrected Terminal B and gave it a fresh, new and contemporary look, the space had seen better days.

“It had been built in 1969, and it looked like it had been built in 1969,” says Gebo of the aged terminal.

The dark, tight and cramped space had reached maximum capacity and lacked customer amenities, having just one concessionaire and a single men’s and lady’s restroom. Its two satellite pods were designed to accommodate narrow body aircraft, which was neither efficient nor effective for today’s airlines. It was, frankly, “tired, old and outdated,” says Mario Diaz, IAH director.

“After 42 years of existence it was in serious need of an upgrade … everything from baggage handling areas, passenger seating, electrical, plumbing, and cooling systems needed an update,” Diaz says.

Airport and city officials began discussions about giving the dingy, outdated terminal a sleek new look, inside and out, in 2008. In 2010, all parties involved agreed to a public-private partnership, or P3, where the city would pay $62 million for a new apron, ramp and taxiway and United would pay up to $100 million for an interior revamp as part of a new 20-year lease with IAH.

Go Green or Go Home

Post Crescent Blogger Nick Mueller recently penned that a “sustainable building” doesn’t really feel like a building at all.  Glass walls, he writes, allow for panoramic views and natural sunlight that streams in at every angle; paints and coatings have little to no smell, so fresh clean air is abundant; and building materials come from nearby sources.

His words certainly ring true in the new Terminal B. It’s bright, it’s airy and it’s sustainable. When all is said and done, United Airlines hopes to attain Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the project.

The new terminal is expected to consume 21 percent less energy than a conventionally built building by utilizing a daylight harvesting system that supplements interior lighting levels, a light shelf in the passenger hold room that reflects daylight deep into the interior,  high-efficiency cooling equipment, and high-value insulation in the walls and roof.

“All of these lights can be dimmed or shut off because plenty of ambient light is being produced,” says Diaz. “The building has thermopane glass so that you can reduce cooling loads. A building management system senses both temperature and lighting conditions to produce only what’s required.”

Other notable features include:

  • A cool roof system that reflects 76 percent of the potential heat gain from the sunlight,
  • Low-flow plumbing fixtures that reduce water usage by 40 percent, and
  • Building materials using at least 20 percent recycled content with no or low VOC content for healthier indoor air quality.

Contemporary Concessions

The new, 225,000-square-foot space connected to the main processing area that passengers enter is elevated with 28-foot-high windows providing a look at the vistas outside. “The entire concourse faces south with windows so it’s very light, very bright and very airy,” says Stephanie Buchanan, vice president IAH Hub, United Airlines. “It is a very pleasing environment.”

Embedded in this hold room are 17 food and beverage and retail areas, so that when passengers are seated they are just “a foot or two away from concessions,” says Diaz.

Gebo says the airline responded to customer requests for high-quality dining and shopping experiences and selected concessions with that in mind. “We are pleased to introduce first-time airport concessions from well-known restaurants that offer variations on Texas flavors, along with established airport concession brands that are already popular with customers.”

Houston Chef Bryan Caswell’s 3rd Bar Oyster & Eating House and Chef Johnny Hernandez’ The Fruteria lead the dining options, which are rounded out with Texas icon Whataburger, Bullrito’s fresh Tex-Mex, and Barcuterie’s cured meats and classic cheeses. Familiar favorites such as Famous Famiglia, Fresh Gourmet Marketplace, Panda Express and Starbucks also can be found.

“We felt it was important to balance the local flavor and give people a little taste of Houston as they pass through the airport,” Gebo says.

Diaz agrees, stating: “It’s all about marketing. It’s about satisfying the needs and wants and desires of passengers to provide the best experience possible. Passenger dwell times run from an hour or more. What better way to entertain them than to provide them with a culinary experience that is something passengers can really look forward to?”

Keeping concessions local also provides a sense of place, he adds. “When you come to Houston, and you enter Terminal B, you know you’ve arrived in Houston.

When done eating, travelers can shop at the iStore Boutique, Relay, Brookstone and The Body Shop among other favorites such as the Ice Currency Exchange, Johnston & Murphy and Natalie’s Candy Jar. 

Concessionaires are spread throughout the space, with some sitting in the middle of the hold room and close to gate and boarding areas. This allows passengers to grab a bite to eat or a shop without the stress of worrying that they will miss their planes. “The arrangement of concessions in the hold room allows passengers to be close to concessions as well as their flights, in an area that is very pleasant to be in with a grand view of the outside,” Gebo explains.

Grab a Seat

Three seating arrangements were selected for the space: Traditional linear seating, where every other seat in the row has power; cluster seating, where three seats are arranged back to back with a small “end table” in between, and every seat has power; and a power bar arrangement.

 “Overall approximately 50 percent of the seats [in the new terminal] are powered,” says Martin Sharp, international manager, North and South America, Zoeftig, the firm that has been the official supplier for seating in United Airlines terminals for the last five years. “The industry has caught on that power is desired by the passengers they serve, and that its time to get away from rows and rows of linear seats.

“Humans don’t like sitting next to other humans they don’t know,” he continues. “People will naturally sit in every other seat; cluster seating increases the seating available because all of the seats are being used.”

Because customers said access to plugs and WiFi is important, WiFi access is free and available throughout the terminal and 50 percent of the seats offer plug-ins for wireless devices. Not only a benefit to passengers, these things also benefit the airport itself, says Diaz. Passengers must create an account with the airport when they sign into the system and provide basic information such as name, address and email. The airport plans to use that database to drive a frequent flyer program that offers discounts on parking, concessions and VIP lounges.  The system will also gather information from customers on the good, the bad and the ugly of airport operations, which will allow the airport to fine-tune operations, promote positive experiences and mitigate negative ones to provide passengers with the best experience possible, says Diaz.

United incorporated a new gate layout and boarding lane design in the terminal to improve boarding times and reduce crowding. The area incorporates a new pier construction design, which to envision, Buchanan says to hold up the palm of your hand and three fingers. The palm, she says, is the main concourse area where hold room seating and concessions are located, while each finger is a pier, and each pier has 10 gates. At the mouth of the pier is a boarding door and that’s where passengers pass though with their boarding pass. They then take an escalator down and follow signage to board their flight. And for the typical walk on the tarmac when taking express jets, the walkway will be covered to protect passengers from Houston’s heat and rain.

“This is more like a central boarding area, almost like a train station,” she says. “There are boarding doors where customers go down to the three ‘fingers’ where the gates actually are.”

She notes this allows passengers to spend more time in the pleasing hold room area, where it’s bigger and brighter and passengers have access to concessions. “And, it allows United to be more flexible with its aircraft gating and staffing,” she adds.

Digital signage becomes increasingly important with this new concept, says Buchanan, who points out digital displays throughout let passengers know what flights would be departing at what time and from where. “We have more information displays than we have historically had to help people visually find their way,” she says. “Even the concessions spaces will have monitors where passengers can see flight information in real time. And there’s an app that lets you know where you flight is at on your phone.”

All of these features add up to a project that meets the airport’s and airline’s objectives for terminal design, and one that passengers will likely give high marks to as they pass through. “Passengers spend as much time in the airport as they do on a flight,” says Gebo. “With this project, we found ways to give some of their time back to them.”