SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL. INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

The new building acts as a gateway between land and air, offering a recognizable image to arriving and leaving passengers. It is organized over five levels, making it America's first mid-rise terminal. It receives multiple modes of transportation - linking cars, busses, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system and the internal light-rail system. According to Craig Hartman, design architect with SOM, the terminal is »founded upon the qualities of light and lightness«. He says of the new roof: »We conceived of it as a floating, sheltering plane and as a symbol.« The building's position above several lanes of traffic required a 380-foot long span between the central columns essentially the building is a bridge. Thus the building itself is in a state of lift-off, offering the first step into the air for departure or a transition space for arrival before the traveler really gets back to the ground. The terminal is built on friction-pendulum base insulators that allow it to swing in the event of an earthquake.