It’s a new age of design and construction for U.S. airports.

Lauren Keeley gestured at the sprawling Terminal B at LaGuardia International Airport, where some of the 14.3 million annual users were standing in a taxi line at the curb.

The term “enabling” may have negative connotations to lay­people, but for airport builders, it’s all about progress.

Far out on an O’Hare International Airport airfield, Ginger Evans, Chicago’s aviation commissioner, faced a barrage of TV cameras, recording devices and reporters with notebooks. Behind her, a poster board displayed different potential configurations for a brand-new Terminal 2.