Why do airports look like they do? With a few exceptions they all look and feel very much the same in the United States. They have been designed to achieve maximize efficiency in an era of computer models of crowd control. Which is why you might feel like you are being funneled down an ever-narrowing pathway from the entrance of the airport to your seat. Compare this to the experience of train stations. They were designed in a bygone era catering to travelers who wandered in whenever they could, and sauntered towards the assigned track, the way air passengers once did before skyjacking terrorists made security checks mandatory. And train stations were designed like cathedrals to evoke grandeur. Airports are designed like malls to inspire impulse spending. I have been looking to fill my water bottle but there are no fountains anywhere. A $5 bottle is in my future. The glamorous era of air travel lives on in the memory and maybe VIP lounges. At JFK it has been immortalized as a hotel. Eero Saarinen's neo- futurist vision, the old Terminal 5, is testament to how once style was seen as a priority if not a necessity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNwYtllyt3Q