Central Terminal may be reborn = Airport commission approves $1.1 billion in contracts for 610,000 = square feet of void at SFO = By Michael Manekin, STAFF WRITER Inside Bay Area = Article Last Updated:01/22/2007 02:46:47 AM PST = = SFO =97 At the very center of San Francisco International Airport's = Terminal 2 sits a salmon-pink desk staffed by no one =97 and, as far as = = the eye can see, empty ticket check-in counters radiate out toward = nothingness. = The scene could be from a horror movie (the aftermath of a great = disaster) or a conceptual art piece (musings on the vacancy of modern = life), but many travelers refer to this spot, almost instinctively, = by its most logical name: "the ghost terminal." = "We were just calling it that," exclaimed Mary Wack as she passed = through Terminal 2 last week. = Like other travelers, Wack and her friends simply followed the signs = from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3. Drifting bemusedly, looking confident, = but a little confused, Wack wondered how the busiest airport in the = Bay Area could have morphed, quite suddenly, into 610,000 square feet = of void. = "It's kind of odd," said Wack. = In its multi-decade heyday as the airport's international terminal, = Terminal 2 was the busiest point in a very busy airport. But when SFO = opened a new billion-dollar international terminal six years ago, the = formerly bustling nexus of overseas arrivals and departures became a = ghost of its former self =97 a terminal-sized hallway between two = functional terminals. = Once slated for remodeling and re-use, Terminal 2 became another = casualty of = 9/11. As business plummeted at SFO, plans for Terminal 2 were laid = aside. = But amid projections of passenger growth and more air carriers = expected to set up shop at the airport, Terminal 2 may soon awaken = from the dead: Last week, the Airport Commission approved three = contracts totaling $1.1 million toward preliminary planning and = feasibility studies for the terminal. = "If we can keep up the growth rate, we'll eventually need more = space," said airport spokesman Mike McCarron. = But that conversion is not set for anytime soon, said McCarron, and = for now Terminal 2 remains in limbo =97 a gaping purgatory within = another purgatory we call "airport." = Here, where the squeak and hum of the escalators provide the aural = backdrop for the dull wheeling of luggage on marble and hushed = speaking of cowed travelers, people move differently. Some slow their = gait; others hurry through the void with great purpose. More than a = few even turn frantic, according to airport employees =97 dashing = blindly toward the terminal's nooks and crannies in desperate search = for the proper gate, finding themselves face to face with a row of = empty newspaper dispensers. = Not infrequently, homeless people make stop-overs in the terminal, = and according to one airport employee, a group of men used to come = here every other Friday to use the terminal as a soccer field. At = either end of the terminal, a sign advises travelers that the area = is "under construction," but nothing has been constructed since the = terminal closed six years ago. A couple of employees speak of past = problems with rats and present problems, which include the noticeable = lack of heat in the winter. = "The question is, 'What the hell's going on?'" said Rilla Ginsberg, = the owner of Wine Wisdom, a wine shop located in the airport's new = international terminal. "It's very expensive real estate, and an = airport is supposed to be gelling and jiving." = Ginsberg, who spent 18 years in the former terminal, is sad to see a = facility once "vibey, buzzing and absolutely bustling" turn into a = ghost terminal =97 although, truth be told, she disputes the term. = "It's not ghosty," she said. "It's desolate. And things that are = empty are never good, because it bodes ... bad economy and bad = industry. Basically, it suggests a financial malaise when you see = things that are empty." = Not that the airport's administration hasn't tried to leverage the = emptiness. Steven Spielberg almost shot "The Terminal," the airport = drama starring Tom Hanks, in the empty building. But the possibility = of a red alert in response to a terrorist threat would have = threatened the shoot, according to McCarron, and Spielberg backed = out. = Meanwhile, the experience of some folks suggests that the terminal = itself would make a good subject for a horror movie. = "This airport's full of ghosts and they're not necessarily 'people = ghosts,'" said one airport worker. "The airport has a spirit," she = warned, adding that after 9/11 cleared people out of the building, = the airport acted up like a cranky child, sending escalators and = elevators out of commission for weeks on end. = "The airport turned mad," she said. "The airport has a purpose, and = the purpose is to be the connecting point between people and their = journey. And when that purpose is denied, it creates problems." = Where some see poltergeists, others see an empty terminal as an = opportunity. = "It's very kid-friendly," said Sarah Suloff of Marin County =97 who = wandered, relieved, toward the quiet terminal when her = 18-month-old son Liam threw a tantrum =97 "but that's just a mom = talking with a cranky baby." = And where some see utility, others see beauty. = Jill Stoner, a professor of architecture at UC Berkeley who = studies "the value of emptiness in the context of built space," has = made a point of wandering though the vacant terminal for the last six = years. = "Empty space tends to evoke sacredness," said Stoner. "We feel that = time is suspended in an empty space, and I think that's a wonderful = quality to have in an airport where the engine driving everything = else is about speed and temporality and schedules and surveillance = and kind of specificity of purpose. = "To be in a place that has no purpose," she concluded, "is just a = very refreshing antidote." = And until the airport attracts enough traffic and revenue, an = antidote Terminal 2 shall remain: sanctuary to some, haunted house to = others, and to Ginsberg, "an empty shell that speaks to recent bygone = eras. = "I think it will be very nice when it's inhabited again," she = said. "It's absolutely soul-less, because it has no energy. Until = there's people there's no music, no dance, no rhythm, so it's an = empty shell. And is emptiness progress? I think not." = Staff writer Michael Manekin covers transportation. He can be reached = at (650) 348-4331 or by = e-mail at mmanekin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx = = = The best slide auction on the net: http://www.auctiontransportation.com/sites/psa188/