 to have you back for what happens to be our 222nd, which we call a schnub style, addition of think-taker-wise human-humane architecture. And we're broadcasting live from three different locations from Long Beach with Ron Lindgren. Hi, Ron. Hello. From the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, DeSoto Brown. Hi, DeSoto. And wouldn't you wish so, myself, Martin, this bang back from Munich, Germany. And this is also our Thanksgiving week edition. And so in these days, we'll be a little bittersweet Thanksgiving because we got unfortunately COVID ranging, ranging around. And I have to say back in Bavaria, we have the highest cases ever. And it would be too easy to say that's because of the toll of the temperate, because also there's an overdose of stubbornness, to stubbornness and resistance in some states, not just the Bavarian, but also the Saxony one, which is where we are. So I'm sorry for that. And let us, let us work on that one. So this is the volume four of revisiting your Halikolani Hotel, Ron. And we also got to start out on a more a bittersweet note that will be yours. So for that, let's go to the first slide. Yeah, I've had several weeks now since I first seen a picture of the nearly renovated Halikolani room. And the fact that I am averse to its appearance. And I've got the temerity to just to discuss briefly what the room has that I don't like. And more importantly, what the room doesn't have that I find really bothering and bewildering. And we can zoom in on to the room itself. There it is. It certainly registered to me when I first saw it as rather generic and rather characterless. But it was certainly a comfortable hotel guest room. No problems there. That's, but that is the least that I think a hotel room can provide. It's the most important to some. And to me, that comfort, there are other things that I think can make the room interesting, which might be more important. It looked decidedly bland at first glance. The only spot of color in the foreground, of course, being that fabric throw at the end of the bed. At the same time, as I zeroed in and really studied it, I found this preponderance of all of this fixed built in wooden furniture and all bearing the same sort of bleach blonde finish. A kind of a matchy matchy approach to interior design. Look at the bed. The choice of a platform style bed means that inherently it sits rather heavily on the floor. It's a solid presence in the room. On access directly across from the bed and of that king size bed, and exactly the same width, is this blonde sort of stub wall that runs almost to the ceiling. It provides a backdrop for a very large piece of case goods filled with a serpent of dresser drawers, more than I've ever seen in a hotel guest room before. But what I think bothers me the most is that commanding presence of this wall seems to only be there in order to feature and dramatize the fact that there's this expansive flat screen TV hung so grandly upon it. Now, large TVs and hotel rooms, that has become de rigueur. But making it such a grand gesture, I'm not, I know that isn't necessary. My mind, the presence of so much sort of heavily solid built in furniture of this sort of totally matchy matchy look is a blandness that sort of lands just a bit of an institutional character to the room. In other words, maybe an uninformed person might read it at first as a very upscale college dorm room. What the room doesn't have to my chagrin is I realize that its appearance gave absolutely no indication of where in the whole wide world it might have been located. The blonde case goods and the fact that the the throw has the colors of the flag of Finland might make an uninformed person think it might be in Finland it might be somewhere in Scandinavia. Frankly, if someone had thrown a throw that simulated a Navajo blanket, my first guess uninformed would be that it was somewhere in southwest United States. If we go to the next slide and zero in again on the room suddenly there's what to me well it's certainly the unmistakable but to me a surprising sight of diamond head through the glass wall at the end of the room. I purposely had it fall to shop the way in the first slide because I was trying to make a case that without the view of diamond head you know this world famous tropical crater mass the room could just as well have been in in Akron, Ohio. There's not a single suggestion that it's located in the glorious Hawaiian tropics in my mind in my opinion without that priceless view yes Akron, Ohio but I would warn those prized visitors from Akron that if they visit the Haleiklani and let's hope that they do it isn't likely that they'll have the desirable view you're looking at now at all because barely 7% of the typical rooms which just inhabit one module have that view of diamond head. I should know because as the architect original architect I placed all of the rooms throughout the hotel and the only rooms that have that view are those in a single guest room wing along the Eva property line that's shared with Roy Kelly's Outroof Hotel. I have to ask myself why are the guest room interiors so bland and totally inexpressive of basically anything that might happily be recognized as tropical and I don't have an answer there's not even a single living tropical plant in the room maybe a small decorative palm and surely even though it's almost a stereotype site perhaps a beautiful gorgeous blooming orchid could could at least begin to provide a marker for where you know where you are in the world anyhow absent from the hotel guest room experience and this is a diminishment of an experience of one who wants to come to Hawaii the expected the much coveted and the highly anticipated charm of actually living in Hawaii in the tropics no matter how temporarily in all that blissfulness is just completely absent now that's my damning indictment of what I personally experienced in an overall current trend that I found in all kinds of worldwide tropical hospitality during what are very necessary renovation efforts every number of years hotels need a refreshment outside inside in their in their mechanical electrical plumbing systems you name it it has to be done but each time that they do it they appear more and more gentrified and sort of generically indistinguishable again from beautiful Akron Ohio now I don't mean to come down on Akron Ohio in any way it's a perfectly wonderful place to have been born grow up and live but this sort of policy of gentrification and generic design without any context or any suggestion of context in my mind and I would think in a hotel management's mind isn't a viable policy for achieving you know long-term survival in the cutthroat competition of all of the other hotels in Hawaii I do think that designing and building and maintaining a sense of tropical elegance is possible in a resort hotel and in fact that it's absolutely necessary especially when it's a luxury property if a luxury hotel room does not have elegance something something has really been lost that's a costly proposition but the discriminating luxury hotel guest is willing to pay a hefty price and they do pay a hefty price at luxury resort hotels all around the world and in Hawaii they'll pay very handsomely for what should be a uniquely memorable experience and a very specific experience and if their highly justified expectations are simply not met what happens they will simply look elsewhere to avoid such expensive disappointments in the future I however cannot avoid expressing my disappointment both as the original architect of the hotel and as just a citizen in the appearance of the room after such an expensive outlay to change it so and I think some people might say well well smart ass what would you have done differently I think a little further in the program I might get my chance to talk about not returning to you know all of the elements that appear in the original room some taste change some materials aren't available anymore but tropical elegance would have to be the would be what would be perceived by a guest in a Hawaiian tropical room and I have some very specific ideas about how that would happen and in fact I was schooled by the appearance of the newly renovated room in just what I would do in opposition right on Ron and the ribbon show quote at the top here is is reminding the audience to go back to our most recent shows here where we've been running across that global pandemic of what you just explained also in the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel also in Oscar Niemeyer's Hotel on Madeira same thing and so no surprise when you watch these shows when you have watched these shows that we say bring them back to the original but how you do that let's get us to the next slide we want to again once again we're still in the ongoing using methodology of using cars as vehicles for thought this is a fancy contemporary Mercedes and AMG that the youngest generation tells me oh this is cool this is a hot car and it might be at this point because it's pitched that way right it's it's it's high end it's high class it's it's it's well motorized but does it have the capacity to become a vintage Mercedes because not all Mercedes have become equally vintage that we don't know only time will tell and the the top row of of show quotes basically shows you Ron cruising in what has become vintage which is our p.i. mobile which the model number r1 and 2 and we know it as our 560 SL that was that was made unchanged from 1971 till 89 and the Soto is kindly hosting it currently which will further feature in our ongoing automotive show so that being said let's look at the price tag and this is a steal from booking.com the normal rate is probably a little higher and a little show quote at the very bottom left we just want to remind the audience in the Niemeyer hotel that a lot is still original in the commons area as in your hotel Ron runs for 75 dollars so that gets us to the point that you make right we're talking high end here so money should not be the excuse so the next slide is from your treasure pieces in your home that we're going to talk about next after we're done with what you designed in the sequence of shows is an artifact from way back that we admit that you Ron are biased and probably not objective about to say this should be put in again but the Soto you and I allow ourselves to say very much so we want to see that again is that right sure and this is an original tile from the the bathrooms of the Holy Kulani from when it was first built and designed by our friend Ron and it's kind of a suggestion of a Hawaiian canoe with the ocean and the sun above it i'm particularly fond of tile accents and there's a little picture in the upper right of the Laau Gardens apartment complex on date street in Honolulu from the early 1960s it has an abundance of similar unique outdoor tiles as part of its decor and this was something that was very popular in mid-century it's something that is unique it's something that is artistic i like it a lot i admit i'm biased but we're hoping that those tiles are still in place in the bathrooms but we are not sure they're there and we're dubious that they are which is a shame if that's the truth yeah and tell us more Ron about you just so eloquently and intelligently reiterated your thoughts about them when you choose them together with your interior architect colleague back then yeah what uh uh these tiles are used to create string courses that run around the bathroom walls it's a wonderful detail it's wonderfully tropical it's sort of a kind of almost and and the tile looks very handmade which i think is a nice touch it looks almost naively childlike expression of of the tropics of that kind of detailing is what i would expect in a room in the tropics and maybe here's where i should go into a short description of what i would do with the hotel guest room in the tropics and anywhere in the tropics in terms of of its particular context whether it's Singapore or Honolulu first of all the rooms would contain a perceived tropical elegance which is a trait which is real and is possible part of that is to make sure that the rooms would appear light and airy and residential on scale anything that appeared even vaguely institutional perhaps like built-in furniture in with that kind of character would be absent the furniture too would also be light and airy and appearance all raised above the floor in regular size guest rooms when the space is allowed to flow under the furniture including the beds the room appears much larger you know when you're inhabiting it and certainly to me the appearance of rattan bamboo and raffia wouldn't wouldn't be remits in the choice of the furniture like Vera Wang in her suite renovations i think that a slight asian inflection in the furniture would not be remits also in in sort of enhancing a room's tropical appearance there would be not matchy matchy furnishings but carefully curated contrast in the tone and colors of all of the rooms furnishings the fabric elements in the rooms there's no reason that throws and pillows and whatever else might be used could be graphically vivid and colorful again as Vera Wang approved in her suite renovations there would definitely be at least two live plants of a tropical character in the room of course these are expensive to maintain but this is a luxury hotel i would have an ornamental palm and a gorgeously flowering orchid on display the the guest room as it exists now after the renovation does not have heavy and inappropriate and what would become musty curtains i'm happy to say there are still the very tropical appearance instead of wood adjustable louvered sliding doors they're still there and they give an ineffable tropical appearance to the room but not only that they allow a sort of striated shadow play to occur in the room as the sun moves across the sky during the day it enlivens the room it makes the room more interesting for someone who is there there will certainly be a large coa bowl somewhere in the room but that bowl would have to be so expensive and by that i mean so large that the guest would not put it in their suitcase when they left after their visit that's a problem for hotels that's one of the reasons why wonderful smaller furnishings are they're just taken often and i i appreciate that is a problem so just get a really big coa bowl of at night when the beds are turned down there would be something tropical as a memory of your hotel uh a sort of summing up of your day and of course in my past experience in the original hollocks running that was a beautifully boxed with a little white bow containing every night a different seashell each one very different from each other each one beautiful and memorable if i wanted to get really specific and and i really do somewhere on a wall there would be a colorful piggy hopper print on display and it would feature her beautiful and very languid Polynesian women oh and there would definitely be a ceiling fan in the room and i and my original design with my interior designer should have had such a feature in the room for several reasons first of all uh even when it's not operating and you've got your air seat ac operating at full blast it is definitely a tropical site hanging from the ceiling it has to be of a domestic scale i think it had to be painted white to match the ceiling so it is too commanding the presence but when you open the doors the large lanai doors at the holly cloney sometimes you get enough peripheral breeze from the trade winds that the room is very comfortable anyhow no ac but even if you had to augment the breeze by using the tropical fan overhead of the other thing that you gain by opening the door which is unforgettable and for which the people from akron came to the room for is the sound of the surf not only that but at night when uh the the household out of key always has night time musical entertainment you can be in your room you might or you might be on the lanai having a wonderful room service meal which is one of all aconic specialties and room service is a terrific profit center for all the hotels and you can be hearing the music and if you're lucky enough to have the view you can even watch a beautiful Hawaiian dancer uh doing her thing uh with the uh the darkening pacific ocean and the sun setting off in the distance what else might there be uh and of course i would certainly have details in the room like that charming tile that we're looking at now that is obviously tropical it's not kitschy uh and and it is easy to slip into Hawaiian kitsch and there is a place for Hawaiian kitsch when i was giving the speech at doko momo the hotel i stayed at uh worked off of Hawaiian kitsch but with uh some very carefully curated Hawaiian kitsch that made all the sense in the world uh it wasn't luxurious but it was contextual in a different way i don't think that sort of kitsch is appropriate for a luxury hotel but it was not only appropriate but it was fun and it really added to uh the experience of my room which had a terrific view of the pink palace off in the distance and so there's my idea of what my properly elegant room would be like not you know not a reiteration of what the original room was like although there are many features i like i treasure the sliding louvered wood doors which was the idea of the interior designer and not me times change taste change as i said before sometimes materials aren't available anymore but tropical elegance i declare is possible i've seen it i've lived in it i've been in places that successfully promoted it and not to have the tropical elegance in a luxury room diminishes a hotel guest's experience and i don't understand that and i don't know why you would pay a lot of money for an expensive renovation when the end result is the ammunition of a hotel guest expectations for their very expensive vacation totally understood wrong and we will visit also the hotel you said we made you stay which is the lay low we will touch on that one briefly in the following of this show here and i would say um you know our exotic escapism expert Susanna was uh who is the one who reminded us of the seven to ten years intervals of renovation we're saying in seven to ten years we want to see everything you talked about become reality and then she was also the one giving me a hard time when she was getting overly excited about Vera Wang that you had introduced the audience and us too and i looked very stupid and she said you don't know her you know and so she gave me a whole lecture on that one so i want to see you bringing her back and then also um you know the ceiling fan we were talking before the show one of the most awful kind of blends or a hybrid creatures of of lighting and ceiling fans are are these but i can see and unfortunately she's not with us anymore wrong you said Leslie wheeled your lighting designer but if she would have taken this on to make this hybrid of a ceiling fan and lighting that would have been awesome so really you make us hungry and hopefully the hotel management hopefully peter shamblin we want to send the show to you as we did all of the the recent ones it's going to be uh in you know enlightening for you so um and i have just that would give me a reason to live for another seven to ten years as currently an 80 year old 80 year young we say not 80 year y'all you got something wrong there so now we have about just about enough left uh i think to show one more slide but there's too much to say about so we can't just we can only scratch the surface and so get the the last slide and it's it's an appetizer for you to come back to us next week and look about that one because this is also again in the sort of bitter sweet notion of uh of the show sequence here where we show a lot of tragedies happening and one of them is that one of your dear colleagues that's just recently passed the way that we will introduce to you who we see at the very bottom right but on a on a sweet note Ron uh we show the the contest of hotels that you've been sharing in what we see at the second from the top left from the early 90s where you guys have been hitting the four top ones of the hotels of the tropical resorts and within the same literature you basically hit it again and sort of even better you surpassed yourself because not your Holly Kalani came in first but you're what we still continue to stubbornly call the Waikiki Park Hotel and why we insist to call to prefer to call it like that you will hear from us next week because I must say that I had the happy opportunity to provide the schematic designed for the original Waikiki Park and to work with a very skillful interior designer and I have to say in advance of next week that a gentrification a renovation that I think is also without tropical elegance has occurred indeed and why you think and we want to discuss that you have to see us next week again sorry for that but we look forward to that and we we're sure you do too so with that until then please stay as perfectly pragmatically poetic and poetically pragmatic as you Ron and see you next week happy Thanksgiving yeah happy Thanksgiving