Post #590426 by Lurline@anchor on Mon, May 23, 2011 9:35 PM

WIthout the arch, the South Seas aspect of the entire motel is lost, as the facades of the court are but echoes of the arch. This is a classic example of why I disagree with the idea that business people should run the country; here's a tiki landmark in a fairly good hotel market (one that has an annual draw, a reason for being) and the owners not only don't like the look of their hotel, they chase away business the structure draws. What sort of businessperson rejects business that comes to him, by the group, at their own volition; no advertising money expended?

Still, presuming the arch has to go--for a variety of reasons--it doesn't look like something that couldn't be reconstructed properly, with minimal changes to its appearance.

But the fact that the local modern preservation society isn't quite on board points to a different problem--one environmentalists and other preservationists face: While we can't save everything, too often we get into a rut of what has to be saved: Victorians over mid-century ranch houses; churches and banks over googie style diners and coffee shops; whales, otters, lions-tigers and bears, over plankton and snail darters, and of course--sailing ships over motor ships--like the soon to be dismantled, last of its kind Wapama steam schooner. We somehow need to get a more comprehensive preservation system that protects a cross section of time, not just the grandest specimens, or those by the most famous architects.

We have a greater diversity of building materials, at lower cost, than at any point in history, but we're not using it to build Paris or Rome, or even Empire State Buildings or Golden Gate Bridges, it's almost always something more like Tracy or Palmdale. And while we've lost the knack of the Grand or the Spectacular, we've don't even try for whimsy--the Giant Oranges, Brown Derbies, or Mai Kai's, making the rebuild of this arch all the more important.