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Tiki Central / General Tiki / Rise and fall of The Polynesia, Seattle WASH

Post #504534 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Fri, Jan 15, 2010 1:18 AM

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Some more images of the Polynesia in Seattle. I think I posted these first two a long time ago, before I had a decent scanner. Time to re-post them on this thread.

These next three are from Sept. 1964 issue of "Architectural Record" magazine:

SOUTH PACIFIC LONG HOUSE ON WATERFRONT
The Polynesia restaurant has a dramatic setting at the end of a 125-foot-wide pier which extends 800 feet from the Seattle waterfront into Puget Sound, and its unusual triple A-frame form - inspired by the "halau" or long house - accentuates the dramatic location. The structure is of heavy timber, with special precautions due to the building's location. The necessary sprinkler system is installed, however, so that only the sprinkler heads penetrate to the interior; supply lines are mounted on the outside and run 2 inches off the roof. Charcoal-colored asbestos shingles provide fire-resistant roofing. The red cedar siding, set on a slant to parallel one line of the A-frames, is stained dark brown. The two-level dining area looks out over the sound to a panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains. Most of the seating is built-in to resemble carved Polynesian benches. The cylindrical "fireplace" consists of 1-inch copper tube, bent into a spiral and drilled for gas gets, surrounded by a mesh screen. The architect no only designed the building but the menus as well, and selected the costumes for waiters and waitresses, using tangerine, gold, black and seal brown - the same basic colors used elsewhere in the building.

Finishing up with some photos of one of the huge Witco masks from the front of the Polynesia that Sophista-tiki spotted in West Seattle and documented in this thread:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=68&forum=1&start=15

The owner of the house found the mask floating in Elliot Bay after the restaurant had been lifted by crane onto a barge and moved.


[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-01-15 01:21 ]