United’s Terminal B at George Bush Intercontinental has been running on bones laid in 1969. That’s ending. Houston Airport System and United Airlines are rebuilding the terminal in place under a $2.55 billion program, and the first big piece is close.
Project Scope
The centerpiece is a new North Concourse: roughly 765,000 square feet across three levels, with 22 gates sized for the mix of widebody and narrowbody aircraft United now flies out of Houston. Manhattan Construction Company topped out the airside structure. Alongside it, Clark Construction Group is delivering a new central processor that consolidates ticketing, baggage claim and the security checkpoint into one building, and carries a 50,000-square-foot United Club, the largest in the airline’s system. PGAL is architect of record. Grimshaw and Page handled the processor design.
A second phase reworks the South Concourse, converting 30 regional-jet positions to gates that can take the larger two-class regional aircraft that have replaced 50-seaters across the industry. That work is targeted for the first quarter of 2028. North Concourse commissioning began in July 2026 with substantial completion set for the fall.
Why It Matters
Terminal rebuilds that happen around live operations are a different discipline from greenfield terminals, and IAH is a hard version of it. The old flight stations stay in service while the new concourse is built and commissioned next door, which means phasing, temporary utilities and a security envelope that has to move without ever opening a gap. Houston is running that sequence on one of the busiest international gateways in the country.
The gate math is the reason it’s happening. Regional fleets have gotten bigger, widebody rotations have gotten longer, and terminals designed for 1969 aircraft don’t hold either. Rebuilding a terminal’s processor and concourse separately, then stitching them together, is becoming the default answer at legacy hubs that can’t build on a clean site. Houston’s version is one of the largest currently under way in the U.S.
Related coverage & projects
Project Team & Details
| Developer | United Airlines |
|---|
| Owner / Client | Houston Airport System |
|---|
| Architect | PGAL |
|---|
| Consultants | Page Southerland Page (Terminal Design)
Grimshaw (Central Processor Design) |
|---|
| General Contractor | Clark Construction Group (Central Processor) / Manhattan Construction Company (North Concourse) |
|---|
| Status | Under Construction |
|---|
| Funding Source | Mixed |
|---|
