Design with the Passenger in Mind

Some airport terminals are designed for airlines or aircraft. Orlando International Airport’s new South Terminal C is designed for passengers.

“The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority wanted its new airport terminal to be the beginning of a visitor’s vacation by bringing Florida’s trademark flora and fauna inside,” said Bill Brooks, PE, HNTB senior program director.

Inviting water, garden and light into the terminal buildings and grounds have long been the core elements of The Orlando Experience,^TM a design theme found throughout the airport complex.

“The Orlando Experience^TM is a blend of unique architecture, aesthetics and convenience amenities that capture the essence of central Florida,” said Phil Brown, GOAA CEO. “As architect of record, HNTB has brought those concepts into the 21^st century, melding them with the state-of-the-art technology we are adding. When passengers arrive, they will know immediately they are in central Florida.”

From the subtle to the dramatic

Passengers will enjoy Florida’s world-famous sunshine during their South Terminal C experience. HNTB has designed a towering glass skylight atrium, known as The Boulevard, that runs the length of the new landside terminal to the airside concourse hub, serving as a subtle wayfinder throughout the main corridors passengers will be traversing.

Arriving passengers will discover a “flipped” terminal design. Instead of migrating to the terminal’s lower level to claim their baggage, domestic and international passengers will be reunited with their luggage in the sunny arrival hall on the terminal’s top floor. A new baggage conveyance system, selected for its lean, space-optimizing configuration, allows for an elevated system and facilitates GOAA’s inverted terminal concept, meant to celebrate The Orlando Experience^TM for arriving passengers.

The elements of water, garden and light will be intertwined in two major art installations for the new terminal.

“Fin-shaped glass panels, extending from the wall in the baggage claim level, will shimmer like water when illuminated by sunlight,” Brooks said.

The Springs, a permanent terrazzo floor installation, will depict Florida’s natural freshwater artisan springs. The permanent exhibit will feature giant pools of crystal-clear turquoise water teaming with plant and animal life synonymous with Florida. Palm trees and cypress trees, dripping with moss, will edge the spring, creating a beautiful and calming welcome for international passengers arriving from long flights before they enter U.S. Customs and Immigration facilities.

“The GOAA’s design theme of water, garden and light matches the trilogy of architecture, which is masterfully mixing nature, art and society,” said J.C. Arteaga, HNTB’s architect of record. “To have architecture, you need all three.”

Hi-tech ‘wow’ moments

GOAA has invested in three large-scale interactive digital electronic media exhibits to help communicate The Orlando Experience^TM and create unexpected, wonderful vacation memories before passengers leave the terminal.

In the landside terminal, both arriving and departing passengers will encounter the “Portal,” the terminal building’s signature electronic media feature. A set of multimedia screens, featuring lifelike LED 8K technology, is mounted on a custom-built helix-like steel frame that spirals up through the terminal’s three floors, making the Portal visible to all. The video screens capture constantly changing images of central Florida’s natural beauty, attractions, activities and unique images of the region’s transformative history from agribusiness to space both known and unknown aspects of the region.

In Palm Court, the grand gathering hub where the airside’s north and west concourses intersect, passengers can relax among lanky palm trees and enormous pots spilling over with lush, colorful tropical plants. Palm Court features a 30-foot-tall, video spectacular, called the “Moment Vault.” Three large triangular-shaped, floor-to-ceiling panels with three giant video walls, viewed from outside or inside the Moment Vault, will show Florida’s beaches, botanical gardens — and perhaps even a NASA launch. As passengers watch the videos, cameras will capture their silhouettes and embed them into the iconic central Florida scenes, creating memorable moments worthy of family selfies.

In the north concourse, passengers will walk along “Windows on Orlando,” a 60-foot-long by 28-foot-tall wall of video screens. The three giant screens can work together or independently to make passengers feel as if they are swimming alongside manatees and features aquatic scenes of underwater reefs or walking along a beach with ocean waves washing toward their feet.