 We're back for our 219th show of think tech Hawaii's human human architecture, and we're back broadcasting live from two, excuse me three actually wow wow different parts of the world, which is from Long Beach, California, with our leisure legacy I'm Ron Lindgren, and our conscious of our islands of white is Soto Brown back in Honolulu. Hey guys get to have you back. So, we can we get the first slide up. We want to be a little bit sort of sentimental maybe melancholic romantic in some ways and. I want to talk about zeitgeist of the 80s actually, and that's something that you know for you guys depending on how old you are or how young you are it means different things. And we often experience that, you know, talking about the other arts is helping us to understand architecture more and where society stands towards the discipline and the profession. What we're doing is talking about music and is using Holland Oates who would have been performing in the blaze Dale in a couple days but the concert was pulled I think that's the third time it was pulled because of somehow cove it related and and all the management and the organization so we'll have to miss out on them. But we want to talk about Holland Oates and run I shocked you before the show that I was comparing you to Darryl and and john as your as your buddies, which you said you would have never thought that would, you know, you never thought of that. And the point is that we talk, you know, different arts have different kind of, you know, places in culture. We were taking a break from automobiles and architecture and automobiles as we said they are made to be on the spot. And so they will buy them at the moment they're out on the market. And then when they get old. Often, people start to dislike them. And as he said to sort of sometimes if then some people keep them and restore them they become vintage and collectibles. And so it is with their appreciation and also so it is with their value right because when you buy them, then they basically the price goes down and then if you're lucky at some point, they basically go up again. And you also you can basically then I mean the cars are basically then getting weeded out and they end up on the junkyard and you have less and less of them. And music, it's it's even more music and just turn off and don't play music anymore on the radio and then the music is gone. So Holland also musicians who basically are, you know, they started in the 70s but their prime time was in the 80s, pretty much, and they are for me an example of what we can call. We talk about zeitgeist there's actually something to be above and beyond that zeitgeist which we then call time less. And I've been proof of evidence that Holland olds are of that kind is that some, not that many years ago property of decade which is a lot but it must have been because I was still in the prairie at that time. And there was the Nebraska State Fair, and there were cowboys and horses and pigs and hauling oats playing for them and a couple of people. And few years later actually, that was the last time when before covert, they were filling the Blaisdale two nights in a row consecutively, and we know the Blaisdale fits many people there. So they went from like a small crowd to the big arena. And, but they played the same they were just as passionate in front of the pigs and the cowboys and the horses as there were to this massive audience in the main arena and Honolulu. So I, my feeling was very like true artist, who always did what they believed one should do, and it just they hit the spot in the 80s that was their prime time, but their music is still around and if you hear it I actually had some, you know guys on the beach recently some urban nomads how we call them the homeless head hauling notes on. And it reminded me of that it doesn't, you know, sound dated, it's still like, still has the same patch. And if you don't think about when when it was first played you, you know, you don't even, and that's what we call timeless right. So we want to talk about your project run that is the most timeless and the most zeitgeist resilient or resistant in all of Honolulu and Waikiki and that is your Holly Kalani that was built and that's why I make this comparison in the same time in in the beginning and mid 70s. So, let's go to the second 80s of course 80s of course yeah that one because all an old start in the 70s and there's obviously killings with projects from starting in the 60s at the Kahala and then the 70s as we did money shores about it. So this slide here is basically the the the right column is nothing else, but you having to see us because we want, why would you have to care how we looked how goofy we looked back then, but we want you to immerse yourself in your memory and thinking about how did I look and more importantly how did I feel what was the vibe of the times of the mid 80s that's what we want you to do, and you run then provided as a picture of the lures lounge ground floor. How it looked like back then when you had just been basically creating it and tell us a little bit more about it especially also in reference to the two show quotes above that picture. Yeah, we're, you were making a connection between myself and all the notes. I've never met the gentleman but I've certainly heard them often. And the word timeless is is is a connection the sense that as the lead designer for the Holly cloney hotel. We, I, and all of the willing accomplices the great other design talents that work with me, all have the idea that that architecture could take on some timeless aspects, just as I'm sure hollow notes felt that their own music was timeless in their own minds and so they would play it to all and whoever would would listen to it. But we're also going to be talking about trends in hotels, where as they as they do require every several decades and sometimes sooner, a hotel needs a refreshing. And that can be anything from physical aspects, the fact that technology has changed. There's all sorts of new new things to be incorporated into the hotel that weren't available as technology, when it was first built. But there's a tendency also to in renovating to maybe forget the timelessness and try to wedge in something that is sort of of the day of the time. When you can easily identify something as being from a certain time, it might just be because that was a fad at that time. And certainly my intention the intention of the killings with office and all the designers with us was to look at something a bit more timeless in the upper left hand corner is a picture of the lures house lobby as it looked in the 1930s. And to be fair to those who renovate, there are changes of taste there are sometimes when materials aren't available and any longer. There are some overriding considerations that mean that when you renovate the appearance does change somewhat, and perhaps even in a major sort of way. When I saw what the 1930s lobby look like. In fact, it was very Hawaiian. It seemed also to me just maybe a little bit too kitschy. If you look closely there are things like tiki torch lights on either side of the fireplace. There are some sort of over overly bright I'm sure of tropical fabrics on the open chairs. There was a clutter of a lot of small photographs and artwork, which was symptomatic of the time. So if you look at the bottom left picture, you see what my interior designer and myself thought of that the room should be traditional. There should be the flavor of the 1930s, but without some of some of the more kitschy items and so you can see that the furniture is still rather stately it's overstuffed. It's a room that your maiden aunt could feel very comfortable in. And as it turns out, that sort of Chinese Chippendale table that shows in the very center of the picture with the flower arrangement on it actually came from the 1930s. A holiday lobby, where my interior designer found it and refurbish it and use it as a centerpiece for that space. And picture number two is a show quote from when you were introducing the Hale Kalani to begin with about almost like two years ago as we can read there on the picture number two. And that's a picture I took of when I was introduced to the Hale Kalani by our exotic escapism expert, Susanna, when she was pulling me into the Hale Kalani and said, I think this is an interesting place. Let's discover that. And we were like, you know, venturing through the hotel and ending up there. And after that becoming our favorite place that we made this almost a ritual or routine, and always having sitting down there catching a breath enjoying just the atmosphere. And that table you were talking about was obviously still there. And now we get to the point why do we do this show here. Another show because we already did a show. Well, the point is this, your hotel has been just recently remodeled, right. So now, we're very curious about how that turned out. So for that, let's get us to the next slide. But with another sort of found object of memories, because this is a strange hybrid of a Finnish. You know, micro architecture by Alva Ato and things in there that you collected that have a lot to do with the memory about the place you design. So what is that? One of the things that I happily was able to do after the hotel first opened was that I still had many, many occasions to be sent to the Hale Kalani to assist management with further steps in the development of the hotel. For example, when it first opened, there wasn't a full Port Couchier to drive under. There was rather something, a rather stubby cantilever that was a little bit awkward. But we got to design, we had the opportunity to go back and design a full and what I think turned out to be a very elegant, urban experience under a Port Couchier. There was a time that I stayed at the hotel. I would stay at the hotel at their expense. Thank God. And at that time, every night, just before I would go to sleep, when the bed was made up, a small little white box with a beautiful white ribbon appeared on the pillow. But instead of being that chocolate, which I think is kind of a mistake, I mean, you've already brushed your teeth, you want it, you want your nice rest, to chew into some chocolate at that time, might not be such a great choice. What management did at that time was to provide every night a different and very beautiful version of an ocean shell, a sea shell. And so, in my recent renovation of the home after some water damage incurred, I decided to display all of those shells which represented every day that I stayed happily at the hotel, still working for them. Carrying out the obligation to see that the hotel would be carried to what it was meant to be, including its Port Couchier and some other items that we worked on and added in the first several years of the hotel being open. Okay. And let's walk to that Port Couchier. Go to the next slide because we see it there in the distance. And this is documenting, you know, the slide, the show quote at the bottom right is basically, again, from two years ago, that was the first time we read on the title page of the Star Advertiser that they wanted to renovate your Hali Kalani. But then it took them pretty much two more years or one more year actually to start, and they basically used again as many, the kind of the pause of COVID that they had anyways and said, we might as well, you know, take advantage of that and, and get something done during that time. And so they were reopening on October 1. So this is again, Zuzana here, and I at night, trying to figure and find out what is going on but we couldn't see much because it was all fenced off. And so we were very, very curious not to say anxious. And so the next slide is from the ocean side where, again, they couldn't or didn't want to fence it off as much as they did it to the front. And we were a little worried because that sort of edge of the pool was wasn't looking like it used to with these very nice mosaic tiles and. But it turned out to be a technical renovation. I think that edge needed to be redone and it actually was redone in the original sense so that was a relief, especially when we get to the next slide. Because of the press that the hotel was communicating on this sort of, you know, hospitality blog. And how, how did this feel for you Ron when you as the originator, the father of your baby here when you were reading this. Yeah, obviously, we were always concerned about what might be happening at the Holocaust during the time that it was closed during the pandemic. It certainly was an opportune time and a timely time to renovate and freshen the hotel. But would that freshening in any respect, minimize maybe what some of our primary concerns were, and my primary concern as as the lead architectural designer, my concern right from the start came from the name of the hotel. The holy cloney means the house be fitting heaven. And so my, the whole thought the whole design preset was that there should be a timeless tropical home for discriminating travelers who learn to love Hawaii as their destination. So here's the prime design precept. Were there be some things happening, especially in the interiors that might compromise some of the residential character that we thought was so important and so historically apropos this time. Well, let's see. And what made us worry is at the first paragraph here it says that quoting the, the chief operating officer. Peter Chandlin, and he said in order to preserve Holly Colani's legacy as the hotel heads into its second century the restoration has been both both meticulous and wide ranging. It's encompassing the hotel's physical infrastructure which is fine as you said and in fact you had to do this to your bosses initiating project the Kahala after all the systems and the plumbing and the wiring were outdated so that needs to be done. The rooms and suites that's something we might not like and we don't we will talk about this here, but it seems to be this global pandemic of as you said that they think after and so then she said it's almost like seven years or something they seem to swap out and try to make it contemporary and that way erasing and eliminating feeling it's originating zeitgeist in this timeless slide guys, but here in the middle they also set the public spaces and that made us very very very worried. So let's take you on our continues voyage next slide. In my mind, anything in a renovation or restoration or whatever the term might be anything that compromise its residential scale would be a mistake in my mind, and that's just the fact. Yeah, you were stumbling over a term wouldn't panels that you didn't find that encouraging right that was in the last paragraph of that one. So, when it got closer to the reopening, they must have had the need to open this one talking panel would panel of the construction fence here to move things in and out and we were immediately jumping and taking a peek through it. And that gets us to the next slide. And, you know, you designed it very jungly, so made a little hard for it to peek behind because we couldn't walk in there yet that would have chased us out, kicked us out. But what we could see was very promising because we something that you because we will introduce your home renovation that you had to go through not be wanted to but you had to for some tragic circumstances, as you already indicated, including your landscaping and so that one even needs to be done periodically you need to, you know, plants die and you need to plant you ones and you constantly have to work on plants there's no doubt. And they seem to have done this here primarily at least we're hoping. And so, the next slide is the first I think the first one I send you Ron to to keep your hope up, because that was the first night of reopening. And again, from here, everything looks pretty familiar, not to say the way we remember it from you having shown it to us in the three shows we did about it some two years ago. And I say, the, the, the slide just before that and this really put a smile on my face, because of what hotel management was saying and I'll quote it right from their hospitality net description was when they were talking about the gatehouse and Port Co share and so forth, quote, they want to revitalize to further enhance its welcoming aesthetic and spirit of Aloha. Those are the right words, but better than that is, it looks like what they said in those two slides. And so I was really pleased with what people who have come back to the hotel after this long period of pandemic closure will now discover as their hotel is at the house recruiting heaven. Yeah. And coming back, of course, I did immediately the morning, the next morning that gets us to the next slide. And I saw this situation that again looks very familiar to us because it's exactly an unchanged, but we see something here we see some suspension cables for these palm trees so they basically enhance that landscape wise and added what you I believe appreciate a lot, because that's a lot of your of your of your design as you shared with us in these shows how you basically put palm trees in there has been part of the scenery so they've been adding to that one here which you know seems a good thing right. Yeah, that was, that was the opportunity all throughout the hotel property, but by adding some more ponds in front it even strengthens that idea. We went up into the hills above Honolulu and talked to neighbors and bought their palm trees out from under them, and they were willing to sell 70 and 80 foot palm trees. And so we weren't, you know, planting something it should only come out of the tub it for a few years, but we were putting trees that were decades old, and giving sort of an instant in the immature of age, and of timelessness, and it's wonderful to see these ponds and the wonderful of shadow play of moving ponds on what otherwise is a boring stretch of asphalt. Yeah. And, and how you so cleverly made that transition from that boring and actually heat island effect that's increasingly, you know asphalt to the sort of tranquil meditative welcoming spaces of the hotel gets us to the next slide. And that one varies you up there at the top right. These two years ago when you gave me the tour and it looks just like that right so unchanged. There's more more smiles on this face. The, the water, the photograph doesn't make it all that clear that what's actually happening is that that's a very large, very shallow waterfall, and a very straight edge of water is peeling over the top. And then when it falls to a water basin below the water trickles on some protruding edges of tiny pieces of marble that we chipped and broke and and built up to create a wall of water. So this creates a coolness when you first walk into the hotel as pedestrian. It also creates a beautiful masking noise. I swear, and those who go to the hotel will can can experience it themselves. When they were up on that space looking back down lures road. You do not hear the traffic you hear the the the gentle suceration of the waterfall. I also purposely did not raise the waterfall so high that you couldn't see down the street. I wanted to see a contrast as to what urban jungle you were coming out of, and to what quiet retreat I was creating when you turned around 180 degrees. And it is incredibly successful and I have always admired that well before I ever knew you knew who who had done it. The fact that this does keep out the noise of the street which is a busy street you've got a busy intersection right there. It keeps out that noise. It also disguises the fact but does not cover up it's not a forbidding huge wall that walls you in. I have a view to look at which is not an unpleasant urban view it's actually a rather nice looking urban view. But the combination walls you often enough that you're not right in the middle of it and you are within the tranquility of the holy Kulani and I think, again, well before I knew who did it. I always admired this so let me say to the guy who did it. Thank you you did a wonderful job. Thank you. So then obviously and then lured me back into so now here we all are. So let's keep on walking through and we probably make it through one more slide next slide. We turn 180 degrees and then we turn 90 degrees to the right. And there's more water in which we see at the very edge of the image there there's a very there's an axial symmetric because you pointed out many times that add and you guys are classicist in a modern way. And so the lobby is, you know, axial symmetric and there are these shallow pools on both sides. But this is this wonderful trellis area there that being very inclusive the hotel is it also allows people to smoke a cigarette but they only allowed it to do it here. If that's the best use of space is another question. But again, you know, has anything changed here. No, nothing has changed. Although I remember that you said Ron, you would have wished it to go more back to how it originally was and you hold one of these flowers and you said they were going all the way down to the floor right and many of them not to say almost all of them. Seasonally, there were times when this white sunburst divine was something like a curtain that you had to walk through the flowers hung from the trellis all the way to the paving. You basically had to take your hands and open the curtain and walk to it. I give hotel management a lot of credit here. I'm the Japanese owner for the hotel, many, many Japanese clientele coming there, and the Japanese have a tendency to smoke. Because of the rules about smoking throughout the United States and Hawaii. They provided a place where the Japanese and the most elegant ways possible, could walk down this beautiful access through the fun verge of vines, sit on an Edward Luke Jean's garden bench, a classic in itself. Meet each other as smokers and maybe create friendships for life. We're all in this architectural context and I give Halle Klane's management a lot of credit for creating this almost necessary feature for a Japanese hotel. Yeah, and even the wood, I mean the wood is the most vulnerable to having to be redone and whatever but here, you know, even the wood slats are basically kept there. That gets us to, believe it or not, the end of our 28 minutes already, so we can't wait to walk further through and, you know, be increasingly excited. Obviously now here, you know, this has been comforting because our hopes are high, so let's hope that continues to be the case. So for that, we see each other again next week and until then, please stay all very timelessly tropical. Bye bye.