SOM’s Saudi Arabia Hajj Terminal is Honored with 2010 Twenty-five Year Award.
SOM’s Saudi Arabia Hajj Terminal is Honored with 2010 Twenty-five Year Award. To accommodate pilgrims during this long wait, SOM filled the terminal with vast expanses of lightly and flexibly programmed space. There are benches for resting and napping, places for open fire pits for preparing food, cafeterias, information desks, banks, and shops. Finally, visitors to Mecca board buses on the opposite side of the terminal. AIA

Addenda (via e-mail from my friend Eric Chavkin) :

"SOM, aka the "Three Blind Mies", the firm that designed the Hajj Terminal, wasn't in the best shape financially at that time and really needed the job, one of the biggest contracts in the world at that time. But they had an ace in the hole - an Arabic speaking Muslim and genius structural engineer & designer - Fazlur Khan. His design for the Hajj Terminal saved SOM, kept the firm afloat for years, and contributed to the transformation of architectural engineering beyond the then typical steel frame. When Fazlur died in 1982, Adrian Smith, known as the big pompous asshole head of design of SOM, broke down crying at the funeral. There is a nice monograph on him. More on Khan from Wiki in the link below"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fazlur_Rahman_Khan