Post #497944 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Dec 8, 2009 10:38 AM

On a recent urban archeology expedition to Whittier I finally swung by the Hali Kalani, which had been on my list ever since the initial post had showed me THIS incredible rec room:

These must be the most outrageous, over the top "outrigger" beams ever on a Tiki building! (here partially obscured by pool fence) I mean Tiki-Googie if there ever was any! So totally out of proportion, I loved the nonsensicalness of them. Undoubtedly, the architect had slipped these design features by the developer/client, because they were REALLY BIG, and simply just in the way. I planned to explore them photographically, and find the right angles to emphasize the wonkyness of these wooden protrusions, to ad them to the unique vocabulary of Tiki style:

I was happy to find the A-frame and the lava walls outside still in good shape...

...and though the main A-frame front and back outrigger beams had been lopped of, the side gables still showed the elegant design they must have had:

But as I entered the courtyard, my worst fears were realized:

Gone were the man-high wings that once made these lava rock wedges fly, forever having eluded photographic documentation of their greatness! Sob, sniff!!!

My only consolation was that, though Grumbler had posted the pic in spring 2008, his photo was from 6 years earlier:

On 2008-04-24 13:47, Grumbler wrote:
I haven't been by the Hali Kalani since 2002 so I don't know if they are still operational. Here are some pics I took that summer.

...and that after interviewing some natives that had been at the village for four years and had never seen the rec room WITH the wings, I realized I never had had a chance to document them: They must have been lopped off way before 2008. Still, another great piece of Poly pop lost to time....