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A partnership made in the Motor City! Shinola — known for its handcrafted luxury watches — has an outpost in the landmark 1962 former Trans World Airlines terminal designed by architect Eero Saarinen.
The store features a custom watch bar — shoppers can choose from a variety of dials and straps and have a personalized timepiece built in the store. The brand also offers an assortment of its premium leather handbags, wallets and journals, as well as audio equipment including speakers and turntables. A monogramming station embosses initials and names on journals and leather goods free of charge.
Shinola — which takes its name from an iconic 1920s shoe polish brand — prides itself on crafting modern goods that are built to last. The eight-year-old company operates an in-house watch and leather factory at its Detroit headquarters, where a team of artisans assembles between 500 and 700 watches per day. (More than 30 people participate in the creation of each ticker!)
It’s not the first time Detroit-bred talent has landed at JFK: The former TWA terminal has a strong connection to the Midwest city. Born in Finland, Saarinen grew up in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, where his father, Eliel, presided over the famed Cranbrook Academy of Art. The younger Saarinen went on to teach at Cranbrook — now recognized as the cradle of midcentury modernism — where he met future collaborators Florence Knoll and Charles and Ray Eames.
Indeed, the 1940s and 50s marked a magical time for the Motor City, as many of the world’s top designers flocked there to do work for the automobile industry. (Parisian industrial designer Raymond Loewy — who dreamt up TWA’s 1959 twin globe logo and outfitted the terminal’s Paris Café and Lisbon Lounge — clocked time in Detroit designing cars for Studebaker.)
In 1950, Saarinen opened his namesake architecture firm in Bloomfield Hills, which employed Kevin Roche and César Pelli, two architects crucial to the design of the TWA Flight Center. Charles Eames and Alexander Girard were known to drop by the office frequently and offer feedback.
“We are amazed at the level of research, design and attention to detail that has gone into the development of the TWA Hotel,” says Tom Kartsotis, the founder of Shinola. “We have been watching this project from the sideline for a while now and couldn’t have been more thrilled to have our brand included.”
Scroll through photo galleries of the TWA Flight Center, hotel amenities, guestrooms, event spaces and museum exhibitions.
TWA Hotel’s 50,000 square feet of event space holds up to 1,600 people.
Celebrated chef Jean-Georges helms the restaurant in a historic space.
