Carroll County Airport Terminal

The Carroll County Airport Terminal is an architectural machine inspiring the adventure of flight while lightly landing as a proud artifact eagerly engaging a growing population of pilots and visitors to this rural Arkansas airport. Conceptually derived from the memory of a World War 2 F4U Corsair airplane, the terminal building is a lens, capturing and projecting pilots to the landing area of the runway. The building seeks to take flight while sheltering exterior spaces under its provocative wing-like forms.

Simple materials of metal panel, glass, and cement fiberboard are carefully articulated as lightweight skins to capture form and flood space with natural light and view. The wedge form provides compression at the public entry at the north and release towards the runway to the south, welcoming planes as they land. From the sky, the building is a beacon, a parked artifact, and a form familiar to visiting pilots. The observation deck, or vulture’s row is a unique loft providing prime views to the approach end of the runway…a vantage from which pilots critique the skills of others as they make their landing on the windy hilltop.