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After 40 years, the `temporary' terminal at Wellington's airport is about to go. Tina-Marie Morrison reports on the more transparent replacement for the blind walls of the old converted hangar
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THE end of an era is looming for Wellington with the replacement of its "tin shed" airport terminal with a new $42 million terminal at the end of the month.
For four decades the "front door" to the capital city has been a "temporary" converted hangar with a few attachments.
The old hangar had a bunker-like quality, which meant "meeters and greeters" could not see the planes people were arriving or departing on.
The few determined enough to want to wave goodbye had to leave the building and brave the wind from behind a wire barrier fence.
The architect of the new, more "transparent" terminal, Jon Craig of Craig Craig Moller, said one of the main aims of the design was to connect the terminal with Wellington and to imbue it with the flavour of the city.
This is the most obvious in the use of glass, particularly a 100- metre long glass wall fronting the runway.
Planes will be easily visible...