As cities change, unused assets like the Istanbul Atatürk Airport become visible. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to discuss the difficulties Istanbul has encountered since the Atatürk Airport was shut down. Strategically situated within the metropolis, this vast airport district ran the risk of turning from a bustling transport center to a silent monument, neglected, and detached from the city’s changing fabric, or worse, being subjected to creation of more concrete urban blocks, for short term economic gains, provoking even further damage of the city’s ecological downfall. Such trajectory is nothing new in the history of the city İstanbul.