The Airport Lounge City

I went to the US Open last week, a fun end-of-summer New York ritual that felt especially exciting after last year’s hiatus. Like any other live sporting event, the US Open is an environment saturated with its sponsors’ visual branding, although the highbrow nature of these particular sponsors stands in striking contrast to what you see at baseball or football games: Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Deloitte, Ralph Lauren, Grey Goose, and above all, American Express, whose visual presence feels synonymous with the event itself. AmEx blue is the unofficial color of the US Open—the color you see everywhere when you attend—and the company hosts an archipelago of airport-style lounges throughout the tournament grounds. After several years of going to the US Open, and perhaps due to heightened perception following 18 months of pandemic, the AmEx lounges are what stood out to me this time.