Long Beach Airport — Attraction in Long Beach

In Long Beach, California, a rare architectural balancing act unfolds daily. As passengers cross the tarmac to board flights, they participate in a dialogue between aviation's golden age and its sustainable future.

Long Beach Airport's 1941 terminal exemplifies Streamline Moderne architecture by local architects William Horace Austin and Kenneth Smith Wing. The gleaming white structure, with horizontal lines, porthole windows and nautical railings, embodies early commercial flight's optimism. Originally scheduled to open December 8, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked the day before. The terminal was camouflaged for military use before formally opening in April 1942.

Like many mid-century airports, LGB struggled as jets grew larger and security requirements expanded. By the early 2000s, over 20 converted trailers stood between the historic terminal and airfield—unsuitable for an airport serving nearly 3 million annual passengers.

The HOK-designed modernization (2012) accomplished what few airport renovations manage: enhancing functionality while amplifying historical character. Their solution places the historic terminal front and center, with transparent concourses maintaining sightlines to the original building.

"We didn't feel it was appropriate to mimic it, but rather to be a simple, clean architecture in its own right," explained Ernest Cirangle, HOK's design principal.

Most striking is HOK's interweaving of indoor and outdoor spaces. After security, passengers enter a 21,000-square-foot garden with drought-tolerant plants and wooden boardwalks evoking Long Beach's beachfront. Two rectangular concourse buildings frame this garden, their clean edges and extensive glazing creating a resort-like atmosphere unusual in contemporary airports.

The architects maintained ground-level boarding that preserves the romance of walking across the tarmac. This choice kept construction costs lower while enabling single-story concourses that don't compete with the historic terminal.

Architecture critic Jonathan Glancey counted Long Beach among the world's ten most beautiful airports, praising HOK for bringing the "much-loved regional airport up to date without it losing its Bogart-Bacall-era Hollywood charm." The project earned LEED Silver certification and multiple awards.

The latest improvements, a $125 million program begun in 2020, include the historic terminal's restoration. Swinerton Builders with Corgan Associates and Studio One Eleven restored original design elements while adapting spaces for contemporary use. Terminal roadway improvements will enhance traffic flow by 2025.

Long Beach Airport has become a laboratory for aviation sustainability. Officials have implemented electric charging infrastructure, achieved Level 2 Airport Carbon Accreditation, and set ambitious targets: 20% emissions reduction by 2025 and carbon neutrality by 2045. Atlantic Aviation now offers sustainable aviation fuel and is completing a solar-topped hangar.

These initiatives operate within stringent community constraints. LGB functions under one of the nation's strictest noise ordinances, granted federal exemption in 1995. This limitation has fostered innovation, with the airport launching a "Fly Friendly Program" to improve flight school noise metrics.

What distinguishes Long Beach Airport is its coherent architectural vision across a century of aviation. While many airports erase their history with renovations, LGB has leveraged its past to create a distinctive passenger experience. The trademarked slogan "america's coolest airport™" might seem hyperbolic, but LGB's human scale and California indoor-outdoor aesthetic offer genuine refreshment.

For architecture enthusiasts, Long Beach Airport demonstrates that airports needn't sacrifice their souls to meet contemporary demands. Its blend of preservation and innovation proves our infrastructure can honor history while embracing sustainability—one...

Great airport. Better travel time than LAX (especially to port of LA). Easy drop off/ pick up. Small airport but a variety of food, shopping, indoor/outdoor seating after bag check/TSA area.

This is the smallest airport I’ve ever used. You can walk the length of the entire airport in 20 min. Literally. It’s clean, nice, charming, and the people are friendly. You board/exit the planes directly from the ground. It was fun and different.

IMPORTANT to note: if you’re planning to get to this airport many hours early because a cruise or tour has ended long before your flight, be aware that there is nothing outside of the TSA checkpoint/where you need to check bags. This means few places to sit (a few benches outside) and no amenities except bathrooms and a water station. That’s it.

FOR CRUISERS: I’ll never use LAX for Port of LA; this was easier to pick up/drop off and shorter travel time to/from port. But a note about getting to the airport early: We disembarked a cruise ship, called a Lyft, had no prob at drop off, but we were 6 hours early for flight. We sat outside the ticketing building (on the ground) with our luggage for about 2 hours before we could check our luggage and get through TSA. But this didn’t bother us as the weather was beautiful and it was not crazy busy; very calm and relaxing. This was a GREAT airport to use for our cruise leaving the port of LA. Highly recommend. Local driver said it’s easier/faster to get in/out of, and closer to the port.

THINGS TO NOTE: I would choose this every day over LAX. very small; walk whole airport in less than 30 min. food was very good. Device charging tables available. No lines at all for TSA. Has water fill stations before/after TSA checkpoint. comfortable. no place to dine / relax / charge devices outside terminals (before checking bags). Lyft/Uber/rental car is close with easy access (less than 5 min walk) directly near luggage pick up and ticketing (where you check your bags).

Once inside the the airport, it’s beautiful, the people who work there are incredibly friendly, and there is a small variety (compared to larger airports) of food and beverage options—but the variety was plenty for us.

Note: they are currently still working on renovating this airport. So I’ve no idea what offerings it will have once completed. Hopefully more to offer travelers who are 4+ hours early for flights and checking bags (which we couldn’t do more than 4 hours before...

The only PLUS side to this was it's reasonably located to Disneyland - aside from that.... Our experience at Long Beach Airport left a lot to be desired. TSA was disorganized and completely unprofessional—one agent jokingly asked if my service dog could be used to bite coworkers they didn’t like. Completely inappropriate. They also repeatedly interrupted us, even as we were clearly managing the dog and security process, because they were more focused on the crowd piling up behind us and wanting photos of the dog.

To make matters worse, the Southwest check-in agent argued with us for nearly 45 minutes about ADA rules and service dog access, despite being completely wrong. Her lack of training and unwillingness to listen caused us to miss our flight, at least the baggage made it on the plane! Southwest needs to clearly train their staff on ADA laws, because this woman had zero clue.

The airport itself is small and charming in theory—you walk out onto the tarmac to board, which is unique—but that charm fades quickly. Food choices were limited and wildly overpriced. Returning a rental car was a confusing mess: you park in the main lot, walk to a mobile office that's not marked to check it in, then walk to a separate building just to start the check-in process. A lot of unnecessary bouncing around for no reason.

Long Beach may look cute from the outside, but the operational mess and lack of disability awareness make it hard to recommend.

PSA : The people who were passengers at the airport kept harassing us and interrupting my service dog doing her tasks to demand photos without asking, wanting to pet, get in my face/business. I've never been in such an airport with such rude entitled human beings in my life. I won’t be rushing back. If you're reading this, do yourself a favor and please be aware that you're an adult, you've seen dogs before, you don't need to go harass someone for a photo of a dog, let alone ask to pet it, where it's saddle is, how it fits on a plane etc... it's called google, look it up, and I guarantee you that you are NOT the only entitled human who has stopped someone with a service dog to interrupt, want photos, make dumb remarks/jokes, or ask stupid questions.

Thank you to the parents who educate their children that a service dog is a working dog, and they aren't to be interrupted. I appreciated those educational moments I saw from two...