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“The Romantic Borderline”: From Fences to the Skywalk—Landside–Airside Space in an Early American Airport; New York LaGuardia Terminal 1933–1939

  • Victor MarquezEmail author
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Abstract

This chapter shows early examples of the landside–airside boundary and comments on its origins and representations. The author discusses the emerging complexities that turned airfields into airports and airports into systems. In those years and from the point of view of users, the romantic borderline—or the earliest representation of the landside–airside boundary—was in danger. As aircraft grew more sophisticated, airports became a technology of their own; they turned into political artifacts and powerful mechanisms of publicity and propaganda. To cover its need for a new airport, in 1939 New York City officials commissioned a new kind of airport that could surpass its rival, Newark Airport, in New Jersey. Not surprisingly, the design incorporated a never-seen-before landside–airside boundary scheme. In this chapter, the NY Municipal Airport, later known as LaGuardia, is analyzed in depth, with a special emphasis on the larger discourse and its conflicts of interests. In addition, this section also discusses the details of the creation of the “Skywalk,” or the birth of the first techno-political landside–airside boundary.

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© The Author(s) 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Mexico CityMexico

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