 Good to see you. And if you watch us live, you might be our 12,640th viewer to think take a wise human name in architecture, which happens to be the 238th episode. And we're broadcasting live from, we thought we would be from three different almost continents of the world, but the Soto R. Bishop Museum historian archivist had to rush back to his mother. So it's just going to be two locations with our mid-century modern master, Ron Lindgren, back in the west coast of the mainland of the United States of America in his long beach, Hiron. Hello everyone. Good to have you back. And wouldn't you wish so me back in or near Munich, Germany? If we can get the first slide up, the actual first slide up or the second, this one here. So Ron, in these days, about five weeks ago, the Ukraine war has started. So we continue to have a hard time. The show's title being human, human architecture. How can we even talk about it when the foundations of humanity are torpedoed, right, and violated in such a devastating way? And when we look at the picture at the bottom right, this is the condition that the Ukrainians are facing. This is temperate climate. It's less than a day driving away from here, like 19 hours or so if you map it. And this is what happened. There are no facades anymore on these buildings, and we're not yet through the heating season. So actually, this is the spring of the year where the temperatures are roller-coasting. They're going up and down, and next week they're going down again. So this is really, really tragic. And especially when we go back to where we were investigating back in Honolulu, Hawaii, because we were seeing something, and you were the one suggesting to put this here because it looks like we're talking about one of the same building, but it's actually not. It's two different buildings that look awfully the same. And the top one is the, I forgot the name even, oh, the Azur. It's the Azur Alamoana. It's the Azur, thank you for helping me out in my senior moment here. And the second one in between is the park that's still under development. So we only rely on the proposed images, but we can be assured that it will look pretty much not unlike. And this one is the most recent one we're looking at. This is the Capulani residences that we keep looking at. And so let's go to the next slide and do our detective investigation, because we got our spirits back up. And the show quote at the top right was looking at things that we thought are really, really Hawaiian as the best rainbows in the world we have, and a kooky gubi architecture with, as you guys taught me, these kind of scallop shaped lanais, and then of course some convertible cruising and some fellow PI and Ben's mobile there. And a sibling building we actually have next to the Capulani residences. And this is what we're looking at here. Same theme. And let's go to the next slide. And you want to tell us which building that is, you remember Ron? Is it clear enough to read or have you memorized what it's called? Yeah, the fact is when we saw that first slide and saw those two buildings that look so much like each other, when I hear that these are high rise residences, to me of course they appear pretty cold and formal and so buttoned up that they could be sort of corporate office buildings. But the building that we looked at in the previous slide and this slide is something that was built 50 years ago, originally known as the Chateau Blue Apartments. And now it's the Alamoana Tower Apartments. And this is the ground level. This I haven't seen in person in Hawaii. And it does seem sort of disorganized as storefronts and entries to garages. There's no welcoming gesture for one to arrive at your elevator lobby and whisk you up to your room in the sky. At least no indication of such in this particular photograph. Yeah, that's true. However, there is another member when the restaurant that was in there was still in operation at the very left. You got that canopy that can leavers out that has the same kind of scallopy pattern at its edge. And then there's there's a little fireplace there next to it. And there is I think, you know, we have I have my co-producer Yoni with me here today here sitting next to me. He's a big bubble tea fan. So you might like to go to the bubble tea store at the very bottom right. So even though it is not like a pork kosher, as you have designed the best ones on the island, but at least it looks like a gritty place where there are places to go and everything seems to be like low key. We would also assume it's sort of affordable, right? That's another issue that we're addressing or facing on the island. And let's go to the next slide. Oh, it's at the building is by Edward Bauer, by the way, as you said, built in 1970. And it's featured here on this website. It's called the Mod Traveller. So it's certainly a building of significance, especially for us, local momos, just reminding the audience that you've been our keynote speaker about probably more than two years ago. But here come the two buildings next to each other. And I'll let you respond to that, how that occurs to you. Yeah, this is a wonderful juxtaposition of the original Chateau Blue, now Alamo on apartments on the left, and the 45 stories of the Kapiolani residences. And their contrast at looking at them from some distance is something we'll be talking about in some detail. And it's a fine opportunity to look at the Chateau, which is more obviously residential, much more interesting. Than the sort of corporate office building residences to the right. We'll have to look at them a little more closely to see those differences. And I think the next slide provides that opportunity. Yeah, there we are. At the right, we're looking at at the top right, top right at the plan of the Kapiolani residences, and a closer look of their buttoned up and tight facade, which only provides very shallow balconies. Now, in contrast to that look to the left is the original Chateau Blue. Obviously, much more interesting that the balcony that that runs across the entire width of each unit, one half of it is deep enough to be called a real on eye. You could have a dining table and four chairs out there. The rest of the balcony becomes a step out balcony at the bedroom. There's an interestingly formed scallops in the balcony slabs that also look quirky and interesting and in a way tropical. For me, it's it's the use of metal railings that are such an improvement over the glass railings at the right. The metal railings provide detail. They also provide and help to provide along with the the cantilevering some real shadow play over the face of the building. There is no shadow play of the building next door. And it's also railings that that are like this with just open metal provide an element of human scale because everyone recognizes what the height of the top of a railing is from a floor. Absolutely. And then compare it to the right and you have you were the ones who I should have done that because I'm the educator also. But you said Martin, where's the floor plan? I want to study the floor plan. I don't want to see what's behind these facades. And so you look deeper into the plan and share that with us. Yeah, when when we look, in fact, I think if we look at the at the next slide, that might help me to see how here we go. This is looking at a number of the rooms and units in the copy Elani residences. And you can see that there are some very shallow balconies that are either tucked in within the structural frame or poked out from the structural frame, less than four feet deep. And next to them interspersed with that is this very taut blaze skin. Now it turns out everywhere where there's a balcony shown there is a living room behind it where the where this blue glass is shown. There are bedrooms and rather oddly in those bedrooms blaze bedrooms from floor ceiling, there is a a glass lube or that you can can be opened very, very slightly. Because of child safety issues, it can only be open about four inches wide at the bottom. Otherwise, believe it or not, toddlers can slip through that as they can slip through railings that are further apart than four inches. This seems to be an attempt to provide some actual ventilation to the bedroom, but it's so limited in the fact that it can only be cracked open and nothing more. A next slide would bring up some more items of discussion. We're talking about units, two bedrooms, three bedrooms, there's two one bedroom units, but the two and three bedroom units go for over a million dollars a piece. Now these are marketed as luxury condos, but they also say, and I have to quote this because it's something I so disagree with, quote, each condominium has a lanai to enjoy the beautiful weather that Hawaii has to offer its residences. Well this is patently not so as you can see by this close up of the balconies. They're too shallow to inhabit and then if one were actually able to zoom in on one of the units, you would find that these things really are not much more than outdoor mechanical spaces because there is a remote air conditioning unit sitting on the floor of each balcony and not only that, but next to it is an unsightly jumble of four separate junction boxes and exposed conduits that just trail up and down the wall. And to my horror, when I saw some real estate ads taken from inside the living room of these luxury units, when you're inside looking out, you look, one third of your view is blocked by the view of the back of this air conditioning unit, something that also I have to comment on is this blue tinted glazing is really an odd choice, especially because what it does inside, when you're sitting down in the living room and looking out, you first look through blue tinted glass, which is floor to ceiling and wall to wall of which only the center third opens, but your view is tinted by the blue, but then the glass railings are also tinted blue. It's like looking to the view through two pair of blue sunglasses. What actually happens as shown by photographs provided by the developer himself is that the view of greenery, of the ocean, of the tropical view beyond you, which is certainly one of an advantage of being in a high rise, is completely washed out in tones of blue. You cannot see green through the double layer of these odd glass filters. And I'll make one last comment in looking at the plan and looking at the balcony. There are two units on each floor where privacy between units is completely ignored. There's a one bedroom and a studio located right adjacent to the elevator core where you step out of one unit and you look at 45 degrees directly back into the bedroom of the adjoining unit. The only bedroom privacy, if you happen to be pattering around in your room naked coming out of the shower or you're dressing or whatever, is if you pull the drapes. This is an egregious lack of privacy and all of this brings up the fact that people who have visited these units before buying them, they see that the balcony can't be inhabited. It's too small except maybe to put a pot of the plant out there. Maybe a tiny end table is too small to dine. You certainly can't put an armchair out there and sit because it's not wide enough. But these are million-dollar units, luxury units, and you're looking again at, quote, the back end of a piece of air conditioning equipment. The view is completely, the view of real nature is absolutely screened away through having to see it through blue tint. And your lanai has all sorts of mechanical and electrical equipment exposed, which is the cheapest sort of subcontracting for electrical and mechanical systems possible. Your 30-year mortgage is buying you this. Oh boy. Yeah. And we still a puzzle of trying to understand that. And just to illustrate what you just said, I have to have my sunglasses here and they're unfortunately or coincidentally green and not blue, but I'm putting here glasses over glasses because that's what you're saying is happening in this building. I happen to know that the developer is not from Hawaii. He's actually from Korea. And so I know that Korea has exactly the same climate that I'm very familiar with here, which is tempered. And if we, Max, can we go back to the previous slide for one more time? And we already know from previous shows at the top right, the show quote, this is a building that we have been designing in Germany, which is called the top apartments. It has glass guardrails because the majority of the year is rather cold and not warm, so you actually feel comfortable and it blocks the cold wind. And also the building, the lanais are in the south. And so they basically shape the unit. And in the winter time, what becomes increasingly important, as we were just talking about before the show, when you guys brought up and said our minister of secretary of economy has basically pushed the alert button, the first phase of the warning of natural gas, basically scarcity. And so in these days, this is very, very important that we heat ourselves with basically post fossil systems, passive solar, geothermal, and things like that. That being said, what works in Germany does not work in Hawaii. What works in Korea does not work in Hawaii. We have to say that. And still kind of puzzled, I was thinking about what's with all this blue glass, which by the way, Kurt Sandburne has been writing a questioning article some long time ago. And here I was looking all of a sudden, when I was driving around the island, I was seeing something at, which is where Kurt, by the way, as an activist journalist, has prevented some detrimental developments that would have overlooked over that dam, over that berm, where Hawaii Kai is sort of scarily creeping up on the coast and he prevented that in his brave function of an activist journalist. And while driving by there, I saw these three guys here, and one guy is wearing his swim trunks and a beanie. And why would you do that? And I found this article here that tries to explain, and the last paragraph says that, or we all just remembered what Steve McQueen, Mac DeMarco, Tyler, the creator and Bill Murphy have in common, they all wear tiny hats and they all look really fucking cool, quote, unquote. And maybe that is it, right? Maybe these people just look at what in the majority of the worlds high rises have, no matter where its climate or culture is. And they just basically import that in an invasive way because they think it's cool, but it is not cool because it makes you hot and doesn't keep you cool. To go to the next one, the one that we had previously, if you could read, and I remember it when I took the picture, the brand on these single wall unit AC units, guess is what? It's Samsung, which happens to be Korean. And so this is an all Korean development and all Korean systems and technology. And get us out of depression here, Ron, let's go to the next slide and look at what ironically is right next to it, at least if you take that position to look at it as I did when I took the picture. Yeah, this is a picture of, again, to the right, it's another side of the 45-story, 485-unit Capiolani residences, which sort of looked like a cold off-putting office block. But right next to it is the Pan Am office building. It doesn't have the knives, but in its detailing and in its form and in its shadow play along the elevations, this looks ironically more residential than does the so-called residential tower next to it. I'd make one other comment, too, is all of these new high-rise condominium towers that we're looking at illustrate the scarcity of housing in the United States and in Hawaii because I've really closely studied plans and photographs of the interiors and so forth of the Capiolani residences. And they have such egregious and poor planning elements at both at the large scale and the small scale that it surprises me that all 485 of these units were sold even after prospective clients must have seen these units and seen those problematic areas like air conditioning on uninhabitable Linai's and views turned into blue miasmas through a blue tinted glass for some ungodly reason and floor plans that for some people mean that they have no bedroom privacy from an external unit without closing curtains. And yet they sell like hotcakes because there is this serious problem of a housing shortage. Absolutely. And then the question is, okay, how could you sort of evolve from the panambelling that you said is perfectly self-shading itself? So it's tropical brutalism and the nature of tropical brutalism is volcrate, is that volcanic concrete that is exposing and celebrating its ingredients that are local. So the local basalt as aggregate and as sand is as the show quote picture is at the bottom left clearly show exposed and celebrated to show I am local, right? Versus the other one says I am invasive or I had to put makeup on for some reason that we are still sort of puzzled about, right? So how to move on from that? How to evolve that tropical exotic nature next slide? And this is something you showed particular interest in because this was under development by me with the emerging generation just before we met. And it's pretty much trying to what when J.F.I. dealt this show with my colleague, Professor Park, who was looking into the Capulani residences and potential of optimization. This is based on optimization as well to basically cut things down to the essence to have a central circulation core from that one basically slabs are cantilevered in what we call the split level way so offset. So you won't have to overcome an entire floor. You can basically cascade down. It's like a continuous cascading landscape. And particularly at the bottom right, we see beautifully hand drawn by one of the team members the street situation. There's a farmer's market where they sell the produce. They grow in the building. They can dry their laundry there and they have what replaces the invasive glass curtain wall is here a water curtain wall because only in Hawaii we don't have the 100% saturated humidity that we have in the subtropics. So this is another sort of investigation and experiment. And in contrast to that, let's look how the Capulani residences look from the other side at the street level. Next slide and you tell me Ron. Next slide for that. There you go. Well, this development has literally killed the life of a street. Now admittedly there's some situations involved in what the residences are located adjacent to, but this is urban death and it's planned urban death. And I'll leave you to describe really what these these two buildings that relate to each other are. Yeah. And the one to the right in defense of it, it is the backside of the Alamoana Mall. And having designed community grocery stores, I'm very aware of the backside syndrome of that typology. But at least when you look at the detail at the very right, they kind of fluted the concrete. So they gave it, you know, the attention off scale of tactility. But the one on the left has a sort of prison grating so you can't break in. And the top ones you don't even want to call it engineering because that would be an insult to an intelligent profession, right? This is just, as you said, the developer been throwing something together the cheapest way to sell it for the priciest, you know, profit, right? That's just, you know, there's no other way to judge this here. And while the last two minutes of the show go to the final slide, the next slide, just across the street here, there is a building that isn't the finest. It's from the 80s. It's somewhere hermetic. It tries to do some which you are the master in structural expressionism. It more mimics that than really doing it. But one has to say this parking parking plant at least has some ambitions. You see this tuber look post and then these, you know, rectilinear beams are hung into it. And there's some play with tectonics and assembly. So there's some thought to it. There's some sophistication to it. There's some, there's some, yeah. And if you look, if you look closely, you can see too that there are actually some palm trees planted up very closely to, to the building. So there's some attempt to humanize the facade of the parking garage. Whereas in the previous slide, there was no attempt. And those people who live in the copy of my residences certainly get out and walk around their neighborhood. And they find themselves walking down these dead streets. Absolutely. So we're at the end of this week's observation. We will continue to look at if there is some downtown funk as Bruno Mars calls it in a song versus what we have seen so far, which is nothing but midtown flunk. So stay excited and stay tuned. And until then, please stay tropically exotic, exotically tropic, and see Ron and DeSoto back and everyone else next week. Bye bye. Thank you.