1973 - Eastern's Corporate Headquaters in Building 16 (left)
Miami International Airport, Miami
Eastern's corporate headquarters were located in Building 16 on the left and it was nicknamed "The Ivory Tower" among other things. Building 11 was to the right (north) of it and contained System Operations on the third floor and Commercial Computer Operations on the second floor. Both of these buildings were demolished by the airport in the early 2000's.
Christian, thanks for posting that memory. Do you remember the year? Building 5A is still alive and well after a refurbishment to bring it up to current codes. The Aviation Department has a pile of offices in there - personnel, accounting, facilities, contract administration, etc.
Don
Christian R
22-Sep-2008 16:22
I was one of the first employees to move into building 5-A which is on the other side of Bld.16 We moved from the old hangers. Finance had almost all of the 5 floors. We had a great view of the runway. One day I was watching a plane take off and he had one engine in flames. He was headed east so I ran to the other side of the building just in time to see the plane make a turn back to the airport. I realized that he wasn't going to make it and was about to slam into our building. Instead he crashed into 36 street and careened down several blocks. I said WHEW!
I don't believe it was torn down solely because of the new runway. It would have cost too much to bring the building up to current building and fire codes in order to lease it to other companies. I have photos of the demolition in progress and I remember hearing that it took longer to demolish than anticipated because it was so well built. What a shame that both buildings are now gone when you realize that they were state of the art in the late 60's and 70's.
Weren't they torn down to make room for the new runway? Do I remember an accident where another building, still standing, was damaged from the wrecking ball? One of the last uses of this building was office space for some agencies helping with the Hurricane Andrew recovery.
By any chance do you have any pictures of the old Eastern Airlines System One building at 9300 NW 36 St? That's where I work now. Here are some pictures of that building as it was being converted into Miami Dade Fire Rescue HQ. http://sffma.net/eoc_construc.htm