Swimming pools, private suites, flat-screen televisions, medical facilities and luxury lounges – all these amenities cannot be yours, but can be enjoyed by your pets (or pigs or horses) at the new AFK airport terminal just for animals.

Opening next year alongside JFK international airport, over 70,000 animals of all kinds are expected to pass through ARK annually. This 50,000,000-dollar, 178,000-square-foot space will be the “world’s only privately owned animal terminal and USDA-approved, full-service, 24-hour, airport quarantine facility for import and export of horses, pets, birds and livestock.” 

Your best (canine) friend can enjoy more comforts than you can imagine, including pawdicures, massage therapy and even a swimming pool shaped like a dog bone, while you close feline companion climbs through dedicated jungle gyms or cat TV. Horses will enjoy food, water and rest while basking in daylit stalls that can be individually climate-controlled. You can also watch (and envy) your critters, large or small, via remote webcams on demand.

All animals have access to a veterinary hospital equipped for general health, emergency care, advanced diagnostics and with surgery suites, providing healthcare but also helping to streamline checks and certifications required for overseas travel.

The ARK will replace VetPort, a small 10,000-square-foot onsite facility (effectively a glorified kennel) with meager amenities that still requires a separate offsite quarantine system located miles away.

If this sounds like a luxury affair from a front-of-house perspective, consider all of the work architecture firm Gensler has put in to make the place function, like cleaning up 5,000 pounds of waste produced by up to 180 head of cattle per day. Clever architectural solutions are needed to deal with the sheer volume of animals passing through as well as their species-specific needs.

Long distance bus transportation has been in decline for decades, leaving countless abandoned bus stations to watch time and potential passengers pass them by.

The old abandoned Greyhound Bus Terminal at the corner of Third and Sycamore streets in Evansville, Indiana opened in 1938 and dazzled Depression-weary commuters with its cheerful sky blue exterior and sleek Streamline Moderne styling. Flickr user cmh2315fl captured the old terminal on a sunny April day in 2012.

Though abandoned for many years, the terminal cost just $150,000 to build so Greyhound definitely got their money’s worth. In 1992 the terminal was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 2012 it was renovated, restored and adapted for use as office and community space at one corner of Evansville’s Bicentennial Park.

Going, Going, Ghana

Flickr user Sarah (lotor-matic) snapped the above shots of a disused STC bus terminal while visiting Ghana’s Cape Coast in October of 2008. The terminal must have been quite a sight back in the day but now its exposed roof beams make it look more like a beached and bleached whale skeleton than a former transportation hub.

Sad State Of The Union

If we’re talking about the old Union Bus Station in downtown Oklahoma City, then one might say its state is… terminal? The station operated from 1940 through 2013 and the building was (and still is) distinguished by a blue vitrolite front facade that’s proved to be as durable as it is beautiful. At one point destined for demolition, the property has been bought by a local developer who has pledged to preserve the building’s Art Deco attributes and striking signage through the course of redevelopment.

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Terminal Velocity 10 Abandoned Intercity Bus Stations