Bob Hope Airport officials look to better display bricks memorializing aviation workers
The operations and development committee of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday approved relocating more than 220 commemorative bricks to three pillars near the south side of Bob Hope Airport’s tower.
Bob Hope Airport officials are looking to better display bricks that commemorate Lockheed Corp. and aviation heritage for the facility’s millions of passengers.
The operations and development committee of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday approved relocating more than 220 commemorative bricks to three pillars near the south side of the airfield’s tower.
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Clusters of bricks will be vertically mounted onto the three stucco fixtures outside a patio, said Dan Feger, the airport’s executive director.
“What we’re planning to do is put a frame that’s mounted to each of those three stucco panels and attach the bricks with a stainless-steel screw and washer,” he said. “It will make the fixture quasi-permanent, but will allow us to move it to a more prominent location.”
The committee will present the plan, which will cost an estimated $10,000, to the airport authority board during a future meeting. The project does not require approval from authority members.
The bricks are currently placed along a walkway leading to the airport’s transportation center. Each piece is in honor of either someone who had worked for Lockheed or at the airfield during its 85-year history, Feger said.
Lockheed purchased the then Union Air Terminal in 1940 and renamed it Lockheed Air Terminal. In 1978, Lockheed sold the airfield to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, a joint-powers agency formed by the three cities.
The airport started accepting donations for the bricks in October 2013 as a way to help fund what was going to be called the Skies of Freedom Pavilion, said Lucy Burghdorf, an airport spokeswoman.
Officials were expecting to have about 1,000 former Lockheed employees or their relatives purchase the commemorative items, but the program failed to meet expectations, Burghdorf said.
“It was very disappointing,” Feger said. “Given the hundreds of thousands of Lockheed employees that have come through these portals over the decades, we thought that there would have been more participation. We just didn’t have that.”
Feger said the airport has suspended accepting donations for additional bricks for the time being. However, he said he hopes that moving the bricks to a more visible location will pique the interest of past airfield employees or their relatives.
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