 have you back for what happens to be our 125th human human architecture show here on ThinkTec Hawaii. And we're broadcasting live from the best of the other ends of the world from Honolulu, Hawaii, here with you, the soda in your Bishop Museum, Minnesota. And would you wish so me back in Germany, near Munich. So this is our last show in this year. Before there's a holiday break. And then we reconvene in the new year with the next volume together with Ron Lindgren and finishing the story what happened at the end of this year. But we want to bring up the first slide reporting from this end of the world here with some current happenings here with a sad user that Germany has passed 100,000 deaths. And this is already outdated. We have added I think like 6k tragic figures more to that one. And on the right side, which is where our culinary connoisseurs, Joey and Clara had been in the recent past, this is the city of Lost Stock, which is in the very north of Germany, a coastal city. They still have something that we're very known for. And Americans love to, you know, go to these places for that reason at that time of the year, which is the Christmas market. This Christmas market is still on. However, hours here back in Munich are basically canceled. And so it gets us to the next slide because what also has been canceled. I'll let you share with the audience what that one other famous festival. Well, the famous festival we're talking about in this case is Octoberfest. And several years ago, you told me to my surprise that this is actually should be called Septemberfest, because it actually starts in September, when I have no idea why it's called that. But Germans are kooky people. In any case, our friend, Mr. Chapman is here at the Waikiki Yacht Club, taking you to a local version of the Octoberfest there. And then here are pictures of him indulging in this German dance, the name of which I do not remember, which men wear laterhosen the leather shorts. And they do these steps where they jump up and down and they slap their legs. And that's what he is showing us there. But as we look back to this year of 2021, which we will soon be leaving, we also can acknowledge a wonderful event that happened. And that was the marriage of our our friend here, Martin de Spain, and the lovely Suzanne, and they were married in Germany earlier this year. So that was a happy thing that happened. But 2021 has still not been particularly happy, unfortunately. No, and talking us in our marriage is a happy event, talking about the best of both worlds. You know, everything is relative. So in Germany, the very northern part where I'm from, which is where the Prussians are and where we still are. And the one on the very southern end, you know, they're as extremely different as you can tell. And that's where these two cultures clash. And, you know, Suzanne as being the native Bavarian has to live with his fish head, how they call us at times, we're so close to the coast. Anyways, the middle picture on the on the right is actually Octoberfest this year, which was a watered down version. They still had a menu. But it was sort of small the year before that, which is where Bill was dancing the chou plat, that's how that dance is called. They had the full thing. They have the buffet and they have this beer. And this beer, I always tend to spell it incorrect. That drives Suzanne crazy. I called it ironing up, but there's no R and that this is ironing up. It's from a brewery that she's very familiar to because it's only like 20 minutes drive away from here. And they have been importing that and she a friend of hers, she went to school with told us that they once had a marketing manager, the beer company wanted to keep it rather, you know, to Bavaria, but that manager wanted to bring it to the world out there. And he obviously was successful because half around the world to Hawaii, we have it, right? So there we go. So again, thanks Bill for that tradition. And hopefully we will have October fest back, not just in the Waikiki Yacht Club in the full skull, but also where it originates from in Germany, right? But going to the next slide is another anniversary. So the rides we have a second year commemoration of which event at this time of year. So we're doing the show in December of 2021. And this is the second year anniversary of the beginning of COVID-19. And we didn't realize back in December of 2019 that this worldwide pandemic was coming upon us because it was just getting started at that time in China. And so from then on, we saw the effects starting in March of 2020. And I took a lot of photographs to commemorate what COVID-19 did to Honolulu and how it changed our lives here. And so here's one of those early signs is literally a sign traffic sign, which normally would have been telling you about a loan a lane closing or something is actually telling you to wash your hands as an admonition to try to stop the spread of COVID-19. And unfortunately, of course, we weren't able to and it's still raging two years later. Yeah, these were the about the only lights on pretty much. And so to the next slide, our friend, Ron Lindgren, who excuses himself for today, basically, after previewing the show said, this looks like from Twilight Zone. This is on Calacao Avenue where usually the fancy glitzy stores are and they're all boarded up with some safety lights on and everything else was pretty much deserted, right? As something else was because we have a tragic, notorious reputation of having one of the worst traffic jams in the United States on the island. And it has to do with an oxymoron of an interstate that doesn't do justice to its name because it doesn't connect to any other state, at least not physically. And that is age one. And you basically now on the on this slide, take us out there and tell us. Yeah, so the next slide is is is what we saw in the Easter weekend of 2021. We had a curfew. We had a nightly curfew for three days. So you're not supposed to be out after 10pm and that left the H1 freeway devoid of traffic as this photograph shows that I took. And it's quite an astonishing site because as you said, as a rule, this is filled with traffic, particularly during the morning and evening rush hours. So you see how dramatic the changes were because of COVID-19. Yeah. And ever since our presidential leadership of Biden Harris have signed, luckily have fought through that infrastructural bill. So we're having on infrastructure too in the United States. But next slide we want to return to our core discipline of architecture. And on this glitzy, you know, magnificent mile of Kawakawa Avenue, which is usually filled with cars and people. There was only this one car that looks familiar to us. If you have watched our ongoing automobile architecture show, this is your P I mobile that's the only one on the street. And we see all the buildings pretty much dark, except that one in the back that brought back memories of when I came back from my sabbatical that was the year before COVID broke out. And that shocked me because there was this conversion of this pretty modest mid century inclusive hotel with small hotel rooms, basically converted in what happened to be the biggest budget ever blown on a remodel for making every floor into one unit for high end luxury. So this is pretty ignorant and and just, you know, pretends as nothing had happened still has all the lights shining there. And talking ignorance, we can't skip over another ignorant one, which is the next one, which is the Trump Tower. And we don't want to spend more time you asked for that agree that we need to talk about that on. So no need to that I guess the unempathic nature of anything going on except a couple of stubborn windows here, you know, is closely associated with who gave the name to the hotel as that cryptic sign down there, which is by Ivanka Trump that has been highly criticized about some very tragic possible connotations to the darkest side of my culture. We also don't want to talk about more about that because we get about positive things that gets us to the next slide. And which building is that we remember that right? Yeah, well, this was built as the Gateway Hotel in 1970, and it is facing onto the park that is between Colaco Avenue and Cuyo Avenue. And today it's got a new name the name of which I cannot remember right now. And we've already walk walk. And it is a modest hotel. It's intriguing because it's got this exterior that is kind of canted that is kind of like this. It's it's not just a square up an upright box. It's got some some curves to it or some some angles to it. Yeah, the correct term in my discipline is battered. Thank you, you know, and it's like the cigarettes are like the pyramids and we've been right dedicating a show to that that we're show quoting on the right there. The architect was Joe Paul Rongstead, which was who was quite the enfant terrible. And we can say a chameleon, because he started out with the Queen Emma building in downtown, which the locals call the pimple building for the way that's your building. That was not that. That's not Queen Emma Towers. That's the you're not towers. I thought it's called we that's the original name. Now it's called the Queen Emma building. Correct. I'm sorry. Queen Emma gardens, but no, no, no, you are correct. Yeah, I still know it by 1960s name. I always remember it as the York building, which was the original name. Exactly. And then he had the cigarette phase. And then he did all the all the square rubber stained square and plan towers all over our his and he resided in the most flamboyant of them, which is the century tower. And so probably worth to we actually want to get him to well, he's not around anymore. We missed out on shame on us to get him to interview him, talk about his life. But a doko Momo has been reaching out to his son to potentially talk about his dad's legacy. So it's probably good to look at him as certainly an architect who has shaped the island quite a bit. Moving on. The next slide. It looks a little bit like the the the the the the Queen Kailani tower hotel conglomerate that we show quote on the right side, but it's actually not we said it's a little further down to my side to diamond head. But it has kind of the same kind of a message. And again, just like the building in the past, which is now called the La Quad Tower. Obviously, it is expressing empathy with what we all go through through COVID by leaving on these, you know, lights in these rooms that allow us to see something rather empathic as the heart here. Yes. And so we as bad as the pandemic is and unfortunately will as it looks like continues to be, you know, while Waikiki is really, you know, rushing, we can say, and you know, why isn't Waikiki in particular as it's sort of tourist heart, speaking of hearts, it wants to go back to normal heartbeat so badly. But we say some things, you know, maybe we should have taken the time to catch a breath and reconsider things that maybe weren't so thought through. And we've been sharing our thoughts about that we found it was a very bad idea to tear the, you know, Princess Kailani hotel down and replace it with something that we thought, you know, didn't make sense because it wasn't bigger or at least and it also didn't look better. So so why would you and it's still there. And it's still occupied. So we hope maybe, you know, COVID as the few good things about COVID it has given the hotel ownership and the manager meant that time to maybe reconsider. Let's, you know, let's not tear down that complex of the Princess Kailani and build this new one, which was announced. And there is also a complex across the street across Kailani Avenue that was Kings Alley or Kings villages later was called. A lot has still been cleared. But the construction of the high rise that was planned there as a time share has been put on hold for who knows how long because of COVID. Yeah, that's right. So next slide is the Sheridan Waikiki, which was built in 1970. And that was the time when the ATG, the late partners that now are, you know, WATG, W Stents for Wimbledi, Pete Wimbledi, the founder of the firm. And they joined the firm. But when you look at it in close and we yet have to probably do a show about that one, too. It still has a lot of W-ish in there as Pete's signature. And again, this one is also demonstrating empathy and sympathy, you know, with, you know, what combines us all as human beings, our hearts and our heart beats and coming for our hearts. And they even went one more stage next slide and added that word here that speaks for itself. So we go to the next slide, which is also a WATG. And this more and it's fullest because that was built five years later, or six years later than the six years later in 1976. And it looks less W-ish and more ATG-ish. The Hyatt doesn't have the same sophistication and scale and consideration of contextuality that Pete's projects had. But the firm seems to maybe recognize that because in April of this year, they came out with this sort of fantasy that we see at the very top left there, which we like to see because it's something that we almost always talk about how he would re-jungleize Waikiki and reforest trade it and make it all trees and walkable. And you also see the Hyatt there and the Hyatt has some green on there. But it doesn't seem to go beyond that because it's basically, you know, on the opaque parts, on the structure and doing nothing else. That's already something but that seems a little greenwashed, or at least it needs some more substantiation how that would be. But again, we like to see that. It seems like the mainstream is getting the message from the avant-garde. So we're not unhappy to see that. And we go to the next project. And you please tell us about, you know, its history that you just told me and there's a very exciting aspect to it. Okay, well, as we continue our views of COVID closed hotels with writing and pictures on them from eliminated interior rooms. This was built initially as the Aloha Lani Hotel and it began in 1964. And right after the steel skeleton was completed, the project ran out of money. And it stood there for four years until 1968-69 as an empty steel skeleton before it finally was completed with underdog owners to be turned into the Park Shore Hotel. That's right next door to where you live, virtually next door to where you live at the Waikiki Grand. And today, of course, it looks like a normal building. But as we like to fantasize, during the time that it was an empty steel skeleton, it was actually potentially more livable, where you could have been exposed to the trade winds and all the nice things in the Hawaiian climate. But reality took over and it became a normal hotel as we see in the picture on the left. But it could be retrofitted to that because that's its nature, that's its anatomy, right? And we always talk about strip them naked. And this one could be done like that more than others. Actually more than the one at the bottom right, which is by the same architects, which is very stereotypic. It's tropical brutalism. It's the Frank Fasi municipal building in downtown by the same architects who have obviously talking chameleon, which once it was to some degree as well here, they went from basically, you know, pretty much high modern to tropical brutalists in a decade. And the two top right show quotes is when we were talking to Tropic here and tutor Bill and to Ron about how these designing in Hawaii, these architects were and still are and talking about the corporate which Pete's firm has become to its partners, WATG. There's like three letter four letter word kind of thing in architectural offices around the United States. And this one here is called NBBJ named after its original founders. But for the longest time just known by this abbreviation here. And so that's the that's two of their projects on the island and that there were the architects of the Frank Fasi building that gets us to the next slide, please. We know from our friend Rick Prava, Hi, Rick. Happy holidays to you too. And thanks for these pictures, which he sent to me as I have been sneaking out by that time and leaving the island during the COVID time. And you guys basically both kept me updated about what's going on and that really surreal scenario of the the tourists being gone. And you know, on the opposite, positive and the locals coming back and rediscovering and re inhabiting their, you know, their Viking key. That was that was a part right. And next slide shows us the beach as you were portraying it, right. And that's right, that's history. Now the beach is back to we're not full to full capacity, but you know, that's the goal. And that's the aim. And so on the next slide, you know, this street is now filled with cars in a row. And there is like hordes of pedestrians flannering there on the sidewalks. But that was when it was like that. And that actually reminded you of so many more than half a century before that. And that gets us to the following slide. Right. And this is a view taken from the pretty much the same location as the previous picture in that you saw from 2020. This picture is from 1945. And that was Kalakawa Avenue back then, two way traffic, as you pointed out, Martin. And the only thing that's really pretty much the same is that band entry that you can see in the distance on the left side of the street. That's still there that is thriving. And it's, of course, considerably bigger. But everything else in Waikiki has turned into the modern high rise filled city that it is today, just even on its own within the bigger city of Honolulu. Yeah. And next slide, you know, some took the chance for improvements. We've been lengthy with our friend Ron talking about the remodeling of his Hale Kalani. That's when we first saw it when, you know, this sign was up there, and it was closed for renovation has been reopened since 1st of October. This ending year with overall, you know, we're all very happy. The three of us are very happy. And the four of us is in including her favorite hotel that they kept it intact and just basically, you know, refreshed it technically, except unfortunately, the guest rooms, which we've been excessively brainstorming about show quoting at the top right there. And this gets us slowly but surely to the end of the show and to the end of the year gets us back to the other end of the world. And this is something, as you remember, more than I do, we had been showing and sharing before, but we want to show it again, because this is a hotel that could be like in Waikiki, although it's totally by itself. And it was a particular interest for you to sort of because of some, you know, political certain circumstances, right? Right, right. So let's go to the next slide and let's look at that hotel. And this is it. This is the hotel Neptune. And it was built in what was East Germany, in which it now, of course, is part of the reunified Germany. As you said, this is a substantial looking high rise that's kind of out in the middle of nowhere, sort of speak to speak, unlike Waikiki, which is a whole jungle of high rises. This was built as part of the East German effort to try to attract foreign tourists who would bring in more currency and more money for the government. But then as you said, it got turned into something for the proletariat people of Germany to be able to use as a holiday retreat. And it is on a beach, but it's not a warm beach, because as you can see, you pointed out it very rarely snows, but it does snow there. So this is not someplace you can go all year, like you can go to Waikiki and enjoy the warm water and the warm sun. Yeah, and let's look at that nature of that piece next slide, which just looks like just the sibling of the Waikiki Park, you know, hotel, right, actual hotel. This is right. This is a skeleton, but it cannot afford to the picture we saw before to be like that. It has to put its puffy coat on and it keeps that on over the summer, which is then in its way. And that gets us to the next slide, because that's what we want to and look at the sort of the explorations of the emerging generation where they're stripping all the existing buildings, and they all look like the, you know, the Park Shore hotel. And they all are like that. What we had was that we go back to downtown. And then we had what you see luckily as my background, which is that we have Christmas tree, our Waikiki hood with Primitiva freeze that, you know, you could see many things in them and some of them could see Christmas trees. And now you have to vividly, you know, explain what we would have seen on the third page. And then we will make up for that and start with that in January. Yeah, right. When we go to next year, well, our last pictures were going to be a picture of the Christmas tree in the lobby of Ed Killinsworth's masterpiece, the Kahala Hilton hotel. Now it's just called the Kahala hotel. And that photo was sent to us by our friend Anne Motanaga, because she lives right nearby. And that's as an homage also to Ron Lindgren's former partner in his business, Ed Killinsworth. And then there's also a wonderful photograph of me with my beard decorated for Christmas. That was last year, so I'll have to do it again this year and take another picture so we can update it so that I have a festive Christmas beard every year. There you go. Thanks, great offers. So that was it from us for this year. Happy holidays and stay healthily happy, happily healthy, first and foremost, most importantly. And we all look forward to see you with new energy in January for human human architecture again and for that updated Christmas beard. Oops, now I already said too much of the soda. That's okay. We look forward to 2022 in hopes that it'll be a better year as well. All right. Okay. See you then. Bye bye.