Grand Central Air Terminal

Our restoration of Glendale’s Grand Central Air Terminal began with extensive research. Adapting the Spanish Colonial landmark to its new role, as a corporate campus for the Walt Disney Company, required sensitivity and a passion for architecture’s history.
Architect Henry L. Gogerty designed Glendale’s Grand Central Air Terminal in 1928 as part of Glendale Airport, the first commercial airport in greater Los Angeles. It remains a symbol of innovation: Howard Hughes and Amelia Earhart flew from here, and the airport birthed American Airlines. After the airport closed in 1959, the campus became a light industrial business park through the early 1990s.
The terminal suffered from years of disuse before we began this project. We surveyed the building carefully, determining which areas to restore or modernize, and completely renovated the terminal’s exterior.
The restored clay tile roof, archways and Art Deco accents give the building its distinctive character. Inside, the historic light fixtures, columns and tiled ceilings conjure a previous era’s sense of adventure.
We transformed the two-story passenger waiting room into a multi-purpose event space, while the faithfully-restored coffee shop and dining hall now serve as gathering areas for Disney employees. Upstairs, open-plan offices fill columned, Art Deco rooms while former waiting rooms and balconies provide spaces for meetings or informal lunches. The grandeur and optimistic spirit of the original architecture remains present in the details, and an ongoing exhibition in the visitor’s center tells the history of the terminal through films, preserved artifacts and wall-length photographs.
We collaborated with landscape architect Pamela Burton to reimagine the former concourse, runway and taxiway as an accessible, elegant outdoor event space. Hardscapes contrast open lawns and gardens interspersed among paths and benches. Sustainable into the future, the landscape features water-conserving grasses, permeable paving and indigenous, shade-providing trees. As a forward-looking tribute to the past, Grand Central Air Terminal received a Conservancy Preservation Award and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.