 Welcome back to our exciting adventure in looking for humanity and humility in our urban jungle here in Honolulu and particularly in Waikiki and we're gonna have the most utmost tarzans with us and they're actually originally from Long Beach California the crew around legendary Edward Killingsworth. We're gonna have back his late partner and friend Ron Lindgren. Hi Ron. Hi, how are you Martin? I'm good. Let's jump right back into where we had to leave last time so let's go to slide one here and call us tell us again about Carlos Denise and his strategic move here. Carlos Denise in my mind and many people's minds was the finest architectural illustrator in the United States for decades. We were so lucky to have him work for us. This drawing obviously taken from seemingly from out in the ocean looking back towards the Holy Colony. That was the dream of what we thought it would look like and notice how cleverly in order to make the eyes look at the Holy Colony but Carlos has put a catamaran mask very tall to pretty much mask out the mask of the suit up in hotel next door. Exactly and at this point you know this is sort of wrapping up the the imagination and the inspiration and please recap your what you call them the six principles of your design if you don't mind. Yeah very quickly there were six design strategies that were followed to some success. First of all we walled off those noisy adjacent neighbors with buildings all around the perimeter of the site. Secondly those stone buildings would create quiet and secluded garden courtyards that all face south. The buildings all step down to a one and two story residential scale at the ocean front. And we kept all of the buildings all the structures with the iconic Mickey Roots. All the cars were contained in a multi level parking garage that was on the ocean part of the Holy Colony property which is north of Collier Road. And finally and perhaps most importantly all the designers involved endeavored to create what would be an elegant luxurious, unexpectedly residential ambience at grade and at the second floor public places in the midst of lively urban YGT. And talking lively urban let's switch modes of transportation and get off the catamaran to a helicopter in next slide. And here we finally see how it all comes together. And tell us what's different to the imagination in the realization of it. Yeah here in the last drawing of course we saw what our dream of the hotel was like. Here is where we were gratified by climbing the way up into the shears and then looking down and seeing what we've had rock on the Holy Colony site. I think all of those strategies I've talked about a lot of them are illustrative just by looking at the photographs. The one thing that I might have worst happen is that client was so secure in the thinking that the hotel would be a success. But later in the game of the working drawings, they asked us to add another hundred rooms. And because all the buildings and plans were in shape, that was a matter of my trying to decide how to add 100 rooms, which meant adding more height. And though even though the hotel still appears as a bid rise project, it could have been from the photograph you're seeing, all of those could have been three and maybe four stories less tall. Okay. And then if we look the son and I did a show that's about sort of the denying of the nature of hospitality architecture, you see a lot of Linai's here and they seem to follow sort of a uniform pattern. But let's go to the next slide. Indeed. And this is our mandatory environmental check here, basically looking at this is almost like less famic. If you want to basically environmentally assess something from the mid 80s, which is the time with Ronnie Reagan that, you know, who couldn't have cared less about anything that had to do with the environment, you were pretty much a rebel against that. And while we save the audience from all the bad things we were left with from the postmodern 80s, and basically show only a good one that we've been pointed out polemically, that is the Atlantis by architect Tonica. And while it is, as you call it a good joke, you know, it is it has nothing to do with environmentally interested or conscience. As the Google map assessment shot here shows very much in sort of tracing back to the Kahala, both hotel and the apartments, you design it in a way that it's pretty much self shading itself at most times of the year. So that at the bottom right, their brutal sort of sunset western sun won't burn you. And yeah, so let's go to the next slide here. And I also want to point out here that while the Lanais look pretty much uniform from a distance, and once you get closer, you see there is a tremendous amount of diversity within that unity. And these are just examples to many more situations. So I urge you guys to check that out. And if you look around in Waikiki hardly ever are the balconies or Lanais or whatever you want to call them inhabited. But here they very much are, which again speaks for what you continue to call a more domestic character than a hotel one, right? And I must add that because this is a luxury hotel with some pretty expensive rates for rooms, these outdoor rooms really get well used, especially because people always want to have the ultimate comfort. And that is room service on the Lanais. And so all day long, especially breakfast, you'll see a happy guest in their rooms looking out at the ocean and drinking their own shoes. Yeah, yeah. And talking happy guests next slide here. I want to add one more layer or point out another layer that you added, which is in addition to the glass sliding doors, there's actually wood screens behind it on the inside that you could open and close. And then within that you can turn louvers. So you are having a multitude of how you want to basically adjust the amount of air you want to have to come in and the amount of light, which I found rather spectacular. Move on to the next. I was going to say that also it's such a tropical touch. I think it's such an improvement over what ends up being sort of damp drapes hanging from a ceiling. I love it. Yeah, damp drapes. I will quote you on that. Let's get your copy right. Perfectly said. Let's move to the next slide here. Talking drapes, you know, and and curtains and fenestration and skins. First of all, we want to thank your former colleague and friend who has invited you to do a tour about your former Waikiki Park now rebranded as the Halepuna, yeah, right? Yes. Yeah, Ken Masuno was the project manager for the Halekulani during the construction, design and construction of the Halekulani and of Waikiki Park, which was the first modern boutique hotel in Waikiki. Now it's been reopened just last October as the new Halepuna Waikiki Hotel. Yeah. And while I witnessed you being rather charmed and satisfied by the sensitivity, they didn't bling it. They didn't, you know, do anything to in that would be disrespectful obnoxious. But I insist being the critical, you know, nitpicking guy here, Debbie Downer that I wish they would have kept what you see at the bottom left, which not only the Lanai had a sliding door, but also the piece of glass that was flush with the facade and the guardrail continues. You see there was also a sliding door and that was taken out replaced by fixed glazing. So you don't have anymore what I call side ventilation where you get the breeze sort of diagonally crossed through the room. And I find this unfortunate, but one could say, you know, who am I and we're all biased and sentimental, you know, and all of that and more. But at the top right, there's our expert who actually has a degree in what we're talking about. And this is exotic escapism expert, Suzanne, who is currently revisiting her other fellow tropics in Brazil, which sensitizes her even more because it's it's it's way more humid there. It's way more tropical. So there would be more reason for her medicizing. But here in Hawaii, again, as this photo by the Soto provided by the Soto here about the people wearing little to nothing. Again, you had been getting closer to that. So I would urge in future renovations to basically go keep that next slide here, which is again, share a little bit your assessment of the sort of repurposing of your white thinking part. Yes, the as I said, the hotel did open October 25. Here I'm walking with cameras, you know, at the right, through a space yet that of course hasn't been furnished three weeks before opening and all furniture arrives in a hectic time before the hotel opens itself. Oh, it's, there's there's elegance about it. But you can see, for example, in the upper left, that rubbers were used more as as ornamental features, rather than something that would be actually actually useful in the environment. In other words, opening and closing them for getting natural ventilation. It's an elegant place. I hope to get back and see it soon where it's finished. I think it's biggest success is that at the ground floor, it's opened up Galea Road and it's brought suburban life to what happened a very big street across from Holly Klein. Yeah, yeah. And let's jump to the next slide. Maybe I quote what you said to Ken. You said, Ken, I really appreciate it. It feels very upscale and sophisticated New Yorkan. But aren't we in Hawaii? And that says it all in your honest, respectful, but constructively critical way. And this is here us in our more moderately priced two star hotel, the Waikiki Grand, around the corner in the hood on my way out to my morning running routine that used to take me through the Halakonali. And here, I see the neighbor's newspaper that allowed myself to unroll. And what do we see the title page is today's title page, by the way, is our friend to Soto Brown, who has been diligently working on the surf exhibit, but that he wore himself out and his immune system is down. But he got the mission accomplished. So congratulations to Soto, but now he needs to take some rest and is not with us. Here, your hotel was the star in the star advertiser. And they were talking about some massive basically expanding of the whole hotel chain, right? This, this really brings back memories to me. 35 years ago, the Halakonali also had massive plans for expansion. I myself have provided three preliminary designs for more hotels in Hawaii, one on Bali, one on Kauai, one on the island. And I also designed a Halakonali Los Angeles, which would have been a 33 story tower. We actually finished all of the working drawings and all of the approvals. But all of that felt to the wayside because of the 1990s financial recession in Japan that lasted the entire decade. Now, it's wonderful to hear that the Halakonali have resumed those ideas. They've already opened the Halakonali Okinawa this summer. They've just opened the completely renovated Halakuna Waikiki. They're now looking at the rest of Southeast Asia, the other Hawaiian Islands, Europe, continental United States. And they're interested, as we say in this article, not in scale, but in quality. And I'm so proud of the fact that when they're talking about quality, they're still looking back at the original Halakonali hotel as the touchstone for what they think is quality architecture. Absolutely. And along that, we wouldn't be we if we wouldn't have some constructively critical, polemic proposition. So let's move to the next slide here. So we have been using automobiles as vehicles for thought. And while here, the originally DeSoto's and then Chrysler's always seem to have had the need to basically evolve and change their style. The one at the bottom is basically exactly from the era that you built the hotel. And while me, the Americano and see some value in that, and this is about the Lee Iacaca years where he tried to bring Chrysler back to what it was with some success. And but usually the general public wouldn't say, Well, this is a collectible. This is. But next slide. Your hotel is and again, mid 80s, we took the right to chip in an additional picture of our choice. And this is my additional picture here. And again, I want to I want to remind the audience, this is the midst of postmodernism 10 Stanley Tiger man is being one of the big proponents had just passed away. So God bless him. And his most iconic project is the parking garage in Chicago with the facade looking like the grill of a Royce Royce. So just like the Atlantis, very sort of ironically polemically here, you were basically having to fenestrate or the absence of it the ballroom and you just made it as blunt as you can be this blank wall, no bullshit, no decoration. And then you added to it the vestibule. And I was able to take that pick when we had that bright down there. So I'm very, very proud of that. So I think while the postmodernists were ironic, you were and you were serious, but you were very humorous, as you are in your architecture and as a person wrong. So thanks for that. And functionally, the ballroom has to be on the space and people have to be able to hear. And so it's cut off. But our purpose here was that function space, the space where you might go out to smoke or you might have drinks before going into the ballroom would be open to the elements. Yeah. It's protected by DB's, but it's open air experience before one done goes into the home. Yeah, absolutely. And next one here, next slide. Again, what do the cars do here at the bottom right? This was not the the the labyrinth weren't called the Baron anymore. They were called say brings that was in 2002. And so is the picture at the bottom left that was taken in 2002. Now we don't have say brings anymore than most Chrysler the hottest one we can get is the 300 m, I guess it's called at the top right. And that is now and so is the picture at the top left. So we're talking one and a half decades where everything seems to feel like I have to change and I have to modernize I have to upgrade myself but not so much the hotel. And you say that's true for even going back even more right in time. Yeah, one of the killings where it's not some was that there was an opportunity to do so that the architecture should have a timeless character one that could last. And one had the opening of the hotel as I was 35 years ago. And then look at the same view today, it would look the same. So timelessness is held up. There hasn't been an urge on the part of of this very fine client and management company to change what has worked for them over the years. Absolutely. And I guess as to the next slide here. As it has been analyzed and scholarly research by our main historian, Don Hibbert, who dedicated minute pages to it. Once again, this fantastic book, Designing Paradise. So next slide. It's but when we say what, you know, Suzanne confirms to say there is a sort of novelty need or this sort of need to renew itself. So I'm throwing something out as a fellow colleague here. So if we want to change something how wrong about we take the outer facades here facing to ever and to Maoka, Kalea Street and the out rigor, and we start to re wild that and opening it up more and we stay within the vocabulary of the killing's worth legacy at the top right just next door, the Maoka screens of the now Hale Puna or some years down the road with your colleague and friend, Larry Strikker of the Ilani where sort of, you know, vegetation and and curtains were used as friendly. So could you think of that? Or am I totally nuts with that? No, not at all. Back in the 80s, when the hotel was designed, real interest in incorporating the environment and why that's so important wasn't really, you know, a major factor. If I have to do this over again, I think those single of the corridors would provide views out to the outside world, of course, and light should have been more open so that not only the view, but the breeze, even the tropical smells, like some of which are nice. Yeah, I would have opened that up more somewhat. I'm not sure how right now I'm looking at that picture, but I agree with you completely. Next slide. So I said, with that, let's do it. And this is a message to the ownership and to the management. I once had the chance to run into Peter Shantlin up at Delirious Strandhouse. And so, hi, Peter, we will send the show to you as food for thought. So, you know, if you think you should change something, maybe that's something and the architect of record and of handwriting, you know, is here is around. So please reach out to him because who knows better about the soul and the original integrity of the building than you, Ron. So we are sort of, we have to leave, even, you know, we would like to stay forever, but we have to move on. Our dream vacation is over. So we're on the way to head out, but not without you having gotten your choice of an additional picture and tell us why you choose this one. Just as people who walk into the hotel as pedestrians out of view and do a courtyard, we wanted those who came then up by car to also very unexpectedly step out of the car, walk up a few steps and suddenly look into this quiet secluded courtyard across the broad lawn across the swimming pool terrace and out to the ocean. And here is a manicured jungle, still with a very residential scale. And as you leave the hotel for the last time, you take a glance out that way and remember, hopefully, what a great time you've had there. And let's share that further with the audience go to the next slide, because that's unfortunately the lighting was a little when I took the picture. So actually what's wide in the back is what we just saw. And you're looking this direction, you're kind of reflecting back on your beautiful time you had in these sort of manicured jungle, as you called it. But everything else in the hotel here, all the finishes is pretty much the original. And we would basically urge, you know, while everything else, including next door is thinking you have to renew yourself and rebrand yourself, we would say, relative to the USP of that, the Holly Colani, who is a young timer and is 15 years away from even being eligible to be on the historic register. And that's like the most iffy time when things mostly get outdated. And then people say, Well, in worst case, as we talked about in one of the last shows, the Kapalua, you tear it down entirely, or you basically make such a drastic facelift. And we say don't, because this place here is already vintage is already classy, after only three and a half decades. And what proves that is the next picture. Well, the second but this one here again, this is so I have to so you came back and and you said before it lives and dies in here doesn't die by the list with a staff. And these people were just approaching you and basically saying, Hey, I remember you. Wasn't it some while ago? I think sometimes in the 80s, we saw each other the last time. So even the staff is authentic is original, right, as you have. What is a great pleasure? I don't get back to the Holly Colani as often as I'd like. When I do, I suddenly see people that I've seen in the past and people who have worked with Holly Colani for decades. This is a place where so many of their employees obviously take pride and enjoy their work. Because when you say at the hotel and experience the service that these people what people provide, that is a reflection on their care on their love of the place as well. And just like you didn't get a facelift or some, you know, cosmetic surgery, and they didn't get replaced by supposedly younger people. You just stay with a good old. And that is what the quality is. And that is also the quality of the hotel that it doesn't have the need to be renewed. And now next slide is the proof of evidence because these people here get married and they think this is as it has always been a very elegant place. But you also got a diverse, you know, clientele as you can see that stack of surfboards they're on the right. So you get you get quite the variety of of human activity and event that keeps the place exciting. And that gets us to the next slide here. Once again, it's also a fancy place but it's upscale. So you know, whatever happened to the car here looks like a big bud was crashing into the windshield and they covered it up with a towel. So we will not never know what happened. But what I think tells us there is enough excitement of the human activity and event side right that that brings enough livelihood into the hotel. So and that is always changing. And so you don't need to change the stage for that, which is just great and and sort of leaves as much, you know, basically open stage for for the inhabitants to basically play their dramas at times in it on it, right? Yes, next slide. So here we're leaving again these days a stretch limousines down there you take one look back. And you were you know, goodbye by the leader of the valet crew there. And we didn't jump into one of the stretch limousines but into our vintage pying mobile get to the next slide, which once again, we compare that that sort of like chrome trimming around where the convertible top goes is is chromed and is polished and is silver. And it reminded us of something in addition in the back, right, the silver thing the signage. Yes, the some years after the hotel opened someone with a very fine sense of design and graphics decided to go back to the holiconic typeface that was back in the 1930s. We can read it again but in a modern material. And so here we have the of the history of the hotel show in a very clever and handsome way. Absolutely. So last slide here, we're heading out again with our recommendations pretty much stay true. So the changes could be like, you know, the complimentary water bottle could become a glass bottle to be repurposed and recycled and not dump more plastic into the ocean. But these are just little things that you improve just like with a signage and you always stay true to the original. We're heading out here to do what you called a sunset boulevard cruise. And so we will actually share that with you at the beginning of the new year. And until then, we're going to head out, you're actually going to carry on telling the Killingsworth legacy story at multiple events and venues. I think if I recall correctly, in a couple of days in Bakersfield, California, is that right? That's correct. Okay, so wish you all the best. I mean, we stay in touch, but on screen, we see each other in the new year. Again, with more exciting Killingsworth crew projects. And until then, everyone happy holidays. We will have a show next week. So don't leave us yet. We actually will have it with a late partner by one of your favorite structural engineers Alfred Yee that we talked as with Hans Croc. So I look forward to that. And I wish I could be with you in Bakersfield and witness your presentation. So we stay in touch and prepare for the future shows. And yeah, see you all back next week. If you can't make it happy holidays. And until we see each other next year, please stay as classy rocky as Ron. Bye bye, Ron. Bye now.