 I'm delighted to have you back to this or a show on this think that why is our human human architecture with your host Martin this thing and the still a brown hi to so though. Good day everyone and good day Martin. Yeah, this is continuing to talk about what are breakers that just had his 70s birthday along with you the month same year. How is a legacy continues to live alive and we said we going to go back with the past it onto the next generation as you see in the biggest picture here we did so share with us as we see you there. Yeah, well we're going to talk about some of our friends today and one of our friends is Ethel. No, the who is a new friend for me. And she's the manager of the breakers hotel and in the large picture there there we are that's me on the left and Ethel obviously to the to to the side of me and then Martin and Martin and I was there at the breakers assisting with your travel industry management class that's from you age and the students got to visit breakers and I was there to talk about its history and talk about other types of history, including Hawaiian history and Hawaiian culture and it was very interesting. It was very enjoyable. Ethel is a very sweet person. She is a very dedicated person. And she has been at the breakers since it opened in 1954. So that's 70 years and as we've been discussing you and I Ethel's work at the breakers has been obviously very, very gratifying and satisfying to her and she talked about how proud she is of the number of people come back every year. They have a very dedicated group. She said it's about 80% of their clientele are people who have been there before and obviously for them to have been there that many times many of their clients are older but the clients love to come there every year and the staff who is very stable and many of the workers have been there for a long time enjoy seeing their friends who are the customers and Ethel told us that many of the customers the regular the regular people who come to the hotel have gotten to be friends with each other and go and visit each other. So they see their friends there. They see their friends who are the staff members they have a very strong affection and connection to the breakers. Ethel says they try to give people the same rose if they're if it's possible because people like to be in the same room. So what we see here is the structure and the complex of the buildings really have a following. They have people who love them. They love the breakers. They love buildings there. They love the way the buildings are built. They love the way the setup of the hotel is and of course they love the people who work there as well as the other people who come to the hotel and to have that level of affection and connection among your customers is extremely important but also the satisfaction that the workers are getting like Ethel and the affection they feel for the place. She's not in it to make a heck of a lot of money. She's in it because it's an extremely gratifying satisfying job that gives her that mental satisfaction and it gives her contentment. And if you can find a job that does that for you you are a very lucky person particularly to have had a job like that for your whole life. So there's a lot to admire about the buildings and the structure and the physical location of the breakers hotel but it's the people that make it even a more wonderful story and I also want to just say that I could tell the students were intrigued. They were connected to this and they felt that they were very interested in what they were seeing but also just for me the fact that they have a cat at the hotel and that's something that they regularly have one cat goes away to get another cat and so we got to see the cat who has multiple places to lie down and is treated with great affection. The cat's name is Whitey Ethel when it got Whitey from the Humane Society and little Lou so that is another facet of something like this. We talk about architecture a lot. We talk about buildings but it's the people living in the buildings. It's the experience of the people in the buildings that's really the crucial part of this entire story that we want to tell you and the breakers is really embodying all of those things that we want to talk about. So I had a really satisfying visit. I had a lot of fun doing this just a few days ago and I'm very happy to have met Ethel and I'm really happy to have been able to explore the breakers hotel and to see the inside as well as the outside and just meet the people and have a really good time doing it and learn and learn and experience what they experience. So that's a really upbeat story. I was very happy to be a part of it and again I share my birthday with the breakers so obviously I feel a connection there too. Yeah thanks again for all of that. As you said it couldn't agree more from our fresh experience. It's sustainable as they like to the buzzword of these days on all levels right on a physical level on the spiritual level. After Ethel's ethics as you said the the the gratification is not reading this. It's graciousness up against right lots of fees. That's basically what it is and you just told me before the show that it's the same for people working in Bishop Museum right. That's not to get don't get a paid a lot. So you do it for other reasons you do it for because you love it you have to and that's very very important again and it was also very encouraging for the female emerging you know managers hotel years because they saw a woman a power woman running this place you know and not being overpowered by male masculinity which we have unfortunately we're often that people who rise up to it with their elbows right and they suppress the female and push them somewhere and that was also very very very uplifting. Yeah and I'm very I want to say too Ethel told us she's been the general manager of that hotel since the 1960s. So that was an interesting and groundbreaking position for a woman to be in that long ago and I also want to say too she is physically a very small and slight person so she's running a hotel not through physical presence and not being threatening and not being allowed and not being able to push people around. She's obviously done an excellent job for all these years because that's why she's still there. So as you pointed out to to the female students in your class and I'm hoping they're seeing the same thing that we're talking about. Yes you can you can achieve these things even in the face sometimes of discrimination and you don't have to be a big tough person to have to intimidate people to get there. Yeah and then having said to the guys in the house this is not about reverse racism discrimination you know because it actually doesn't matter we just got to watch out that the ones who are more vulnerable in society they'll get protected more but otherwise it's really not a question of gender nor skin color nor anything right. We're all one species and that gets us then to the guys that we want to talk about and one of them is Richard Lowe who we also have been currently you know seeing that is his pump of that pumps you know the the liquid through his through his system you know needed some needed some rest and needed some repair and we're very happy when we please Michael when he can zoom in at the top left we he now got himself back from restoring that system which was in Queens and yesterday we got him back into what's the place called at least originally. Oh it's in the I believe it's in the area of Hukini Hospital Hukini Hospital started in the early 1900s interesting as the Japanese Hospital and then it changed its name during World War two and it does not for serve just Japanese people but it's turned into a whole medical complex in one and where there are a variety of things that they take care of so I believe that's where he is now in rehab in that Hukini Hospital complex and we're looking on to this really is happening for a reason that this is actually a show that gets us to other next friend run Lindgren in a second here because we named many shows after that their show quoted here at the top in the middle happenings for reasons that was volume nine a concluding volume right we're looking really looking for alternative models in the future because all these things you know rehab you said this is a term that's associated with a current kind of system that is more corporate to facilitate things and there's a lot of driven as money is the greediness that kind of runs it so let's say you know rich is not in rehab but in re enriching right rich re enriches himself in this place for hopefully only a few more days and then he's ready for up and running with us again bunded first and foremost taking him around and keeping him involved he's always in the reviews that you and I are in so we need him back for that and and that's that's that's basically the way to do but architecture again needs to support that so here you know in that new place where he is his daughter made sure he got the bed that was close to the to the window he has a window and he has a view of the mountains and there's a tree in front which he's very happy but he was right he's so saying is that window operable and it was not and again many of the rooms are basically you know having no view or facing the wrong direction while this is up the hill so you could make it like our favorite you know olympics 72 and Munich the terrorist housing you could make this so every every room has a view and and also has sliding doors and you have a look I mean just copy cat that usually a term we don't like to use but just like be inspired and use the terminology and and you go actually Rento Piano the great you know these stark attack who we like the most because he's the least stubborn and the most sensitive on many a level his Rento Piano workshop that's how his office is called is actually like that it's on a hillside and just following the hillside so it's sloping down and stepping down why don't you make a hospital like that and the top left picture just says I mean rich is actually looking at what his life was a part of his life because he was a master planner in the best sense of the word for victory awards so the whole government center is a result of that and by waiting for the limousine to transfer him from this facility to the other one we had time to chat about it and we somehow ran across the Frank Fawzi government building and and the other people in the discussion were not quite sure which one that is and you explained in the most beautiful way where there's utmost expertise is that's what we as the planners for that area basically made sure the Capulani Boulevard is not continuing and cutting this apart we diverted it to basically make sure it becomes a part right and the buildings are equally the capital and the Frank Fawzi buildings are nestled in that part in that kind of Kevin Lynch who is the one of the main protagonist in this area here and rich particularly blossoms again re enriched himself in this space here because he was probably 10 times saying is this beautiful this greenery that's moving in front of the the man-made you know mountains there the downtown area this really got got him going again and if this would have been operable obviously you know even even more so really you know the elements are important at any kind of age but it seems like in in very young age you know where even the medical world is honest about it and created this term of nature deep previation syndrome this is what happens to a lot of the kids teenagers these days who are only on their devices and their kind of behavior shows that there are not enough out in the woods and the same as that the the when the comfortable circle at your sort of most golden era when you when when you age that you also as as they keep saying you know they want this connection to the environment well now the environment that gets us to run can also be you know it's it's it depends and rich who is a big endorser of our visions for the future of alternative systems as primitive at three as we see in the top middle choke what which we discussed with Ron and many and riches is supported but he says Martin remember I get cold so we said yes within we make sure you're not cold and another element to shelter yourself from which is great because it's the source of life that is water but also as they say too much of everything is too much that gets us to our friend from Lincoln that I was so happy I couldn't tell you and I told you that you know we all also have our senior moments sometimes we forget things you had one on on Sunday where I try to tell you which date was when we're supposed to meet with the students and in return you know run because he hadn't picked up the phone for too long many months or it feels like a year on Sunday he picked up the phone he's just as energetic as we remember him as he always was and kindly you know and lucky us keep sending us emails that he does you know hopeful that that is still is but he was on the phone and he was you know it was so enthusiastic that he says yes Martin because we're going to move on with a class going to be the car on Monday next Monday and then it's going to be his colleague for Lonnie at some points soon after and he said yes I'm going to be with you guys I'm going to be make it easy and not on zoom but on the phone and then Martin brings the Bose booster box you know the speaker and we going to have it with us and that was great we had and all the details he remembered about his Holly Colani like four inches or centimeters you know having to widen the rooms after it went from the wire house or clap ownership clap I had never heard before and he himself said Martin you make this all pour out of my head all of a sudden like you know a fountain and and he and so we said yeah keep going share this with us and before we were hanging up he said well wish me luck that the the weather that's supposed to come through which is called an atmospheric river is not going to be as extreme as they forecast that oh well on the right is immediately after Monday's afternoon architecture class I checked the news and I saw that and ever since I was not able to get him back on the phone so Ron hopefully you are safe but again the news said you know there were no no one seriously heard no fatalities and you know property being heard we also hopeful why is that with his house well Ron has been living in a very interesting house it's a duplex and it's very similar in construction style to the work that he worked on with his boss or his boss and no one's worth created starting in the 1950s primarily in California and so the house the house that Ron lives in is very much like the stuff that he worked on during his careers in architect so obviously it fits very beautifully for what he wants well as a duplex he owned his half of it and it was something that was always worrisome to him as he was getting older as to how he was going to be able to afford to take care of this and it was something that was really causing him some mental trauma well fortunately the other tenant has now bought the full building and is letting him live in his half of the duplex and so now as you are saying in his golden years he has removed the worry of upkeep and monetary requirements has been removed and he's now looking at life a lot more happily and with a lot more relaxation and so we are hoping we're going to be getting him back on some of our shows here to again talk about his experiences as an architect as a designer and particularly on the buildings that he worked on that are located here primarily the Holly Kulani which was one of his biggest projects I'm sure that he was in charge of the redevelopment of the Holly Kulani and how it was turned into the complex that it is today from the low-rise original Holly Kulani from the 1930s. Yeah and that being said analyzing that as research for aging and agility you know we all talk including Bandit that everything again happens for a reason it's happening on all levels you know back at home we have Suzanne with her bonus father Stefan who is our last urban farmer who is currently in exactly the parallel situation half around the world you know he had heart issues the pump and now he's waiting for rehab and when we you know visited him over over the holidays he was in his hermetic and closed room and he says I want to feel the breeze again I want to be out there with my plants well in temperate that's obviously more challenging because now we have winter and nothing is green outside but he wants to be outside so this seems to be really a clue not locked people up but actually you know have them be out and about and and and all of the you know the various ways and maybe the whole kind of you know Western ownership that is so foreign to your Hawaiian culture disorder right just seems to prove wrong continue to prove wrong and we call it it sometimes causes the terror of here tropical territorialization and run himself had you know self diagnosed analyzed himself and say you know maybe the reason I was told down because I was how rich and money poor and I had all these worries about what's going to happen how do I inherit this when I'm not anymore and he seems really he says he feels relieved from that because now it's the responsibility of you know it's all taken care of and and the landlord takes care of things so hopefully if there's some water damage now you know then just the landlord just not as fixes and you don't have to worry about Ron well selfishly speaking yes you're going to be with us but that's not you know selfish of us because it's you know we want to share with all you our audience because Ron has always been awesome and will be awesome so we get we get them all back because we we need you guys and we need maybe then to you know we all together I need to research alternative modes and it gets us to the next slide for the remaining seven minutes because the project that we see at the top left there which we've been talking a lot about is the other person that we would have loved to have with us still but he left at least you know the physical earth and that is Steve out Steve out was by the way best friends with rich they were partners and crimes for all everything that that rich was looking out of the window is the area of of his work together with Steve and there's a show that we called Ward Wonder World and it shows you if we would have let them or they would have let them do that Haka Haka would be paradise and not that sort of terror of territorialization which it is today which we allow ourselves to stay after many careful consideration of 320 and plus soon show so that is something so this building is is exciting us because you know when we asked you know we really tried hard you and I had to get Steve out but he was so relaxed and he said I'm good and you guys are on your own so all the shows we had to do on our own but bunded got him out right and got him on on on a great interview for his boundaries changing boundaries website of the stand gallery and and when we said you know for the architectural tour guide we're writing together with Don Hibbard and Bill Chapman we said can we categorize him as the hippie and I was asking wouldn't it would then got him to know the best and he said this is exactly how he categorized himself so this building here is the is the Davies Pacific you know center that is currently going under a repurposing from former office who now residences well you know why this might sound the right direction because we have a housing housing crisis. We had actually Danny Chang send us his newsletter. The second thing he quotes is you know the governor Green again saying we need you know more affordable housing. Well Steve if Steve would be around I'm pretty sure he would do this with us this this one floor demonstrating alternative kind of a neo indigenous way of dwelling versus what's currently happening which is gets basically subdivided into the same old one two three bedrooms and studios starting at half of a million dollar. So we end up with once again you know the terror of tropical territorialization enslaving people with mortgages and there is no Linnae's while he did you know he designed it as a as one Linnae this is an exoskeleton here that if you take that glass often replaced it you know with glass jealousy or other screens you get to breeze through and it has a core that's structural and the facade the concrete as we like to call it tropical brutalist facade is actually load bearing but also shading at the same time. So that's what we're saying you know thieves one of the floors of that one would be ideal to demonstrate and try you know to experiment these practices and we would get you know run in and we would get rich in and we have to keep them warm. Yes. So we're going to cook to we're going to come up with to do whenever it's too cold for them they can be in there. But otherwise we're not going to again and cage them enslave them in many ways and again in units that make them make them lonely right. I mean there's in my building here you know there have been people found dead while they were dead for weeks because they were alone and no one knew them and after while they said well there was sort of someone and in fact people said it smells kind of goofy on the corridor in the hallway. Well that was them basically decomposing already and that is so sad right on all level. If you have people around and that's where we're throwing out this terminology of co-op which is cooperative versus core which is corporate is actually really a trend that sounds like OK where are you guys going and we used to stay commune that one got hijacked by politics and ideologies long time ago and people say oh commune is no we don't want so it's not anything like that. In Europe there's a lot of developments Suzanne just our exoticism experts send us another development we've been reporting on one in Munich a while ago that we got excited about and there's another one is more and more coming up where people just get together and do it and simplify things and that is the way to get it actually affordable to keep it affordable on its daughter was having the great idea she said you know hospitals are really in high demand here where young people you know can live and they don't just like you work in the museum not for the money young people they don't they couldn't care less for two bedrooms and high-end finishes and kitchen and whatnot right they can actually do the call right the cooperative shared facilities as the Hanuman Noah for example where I was lucky to stay during my first week here that does that I am pay you know all you've got the communal kitchens you've got the communal bathrooms and it's 25 bucks per night which makes it $750 per month how does that sound affordable versus 500,000 and up for the needed units they put in there and I'm gonna we're almost you know this I was taught as you said we continue to learn and it goes both in all the directions I learned this from Bargav who comes to us from India and he said Martin I found out that actually office space is cheaper than residential space so illegally some people actually rent an office space and they live in there as a cooperative so you know you're destroying this here now under the oh we're making more housing it's good but what drives this it's most likely again reading us versus credit oh well the only thing I can say that to add to that is I believe the entire daily specific center would probably be shifting over to residential but I was told yesterday there are some long-term tenants who have long-term leases who are commercial tenants who cannot be moved out therefore they're not doing the entire pervert conversion of the building as presumably they would be for economic reasons. Yeah yeah and the architectural studio we have going on oh they're basically ask you if you could come back and be in a review that would ideally be Monday but maybe it has to be Wednesday so we got to talk about it then anyways we're all you know picking this up and digesting this and thinking about again more you know promising models for the future that we can learn from the world that are going on and this is again the corporate thing versus the corporate. So the corporate so the cooperative versus the corporate on greater one oh one little oh makes a lot of a difference right anyways we will continue with that next week hopefully have you back and have you run back on Monday for the kahala if you have time to still join us too because we've all been there together and until then obviously after this talk no surprise please stay gratitude and no verses the greedy grumpy bye bye