Original Description:
During the past years, Northwest Airlines designed and built a spectacular, state-of-the-art terminal at Wayne County's Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The project included the construction of a new international/domestic terminal (the 'Midfield Terminal') with 97 gates, airfield connections via aprons and taxiways, a large parking structure with 11,500 spaces, a multi-level system of access roads to the new terminal, and a power plant. This 1.2 billion dollar expansion opened on February 24, 2002. The terminal was named after Wayne County commissioner McNamara.
In cooperation with Northwest Airlines, the Virtual Reality Laboratory (VRL) at the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan developed a virtual model for the Detroit Midfield Terminal Project to assist in design evaluation and to support a complex decision making process.