Post #767882 by creativenative on Thu, Aug 25, 2016 11:45 PM

Part 2 the Market place itself:

I used to be an architectural critic. The architecture itself was not a surprise for any of us - drab international style with no sense of place unlike the original IMP. I give it a 1 out of 4 stars. This is why the following earned the new IMP a one star and it was not hard for anyone to earn this: one, nice tropical plants every where or the white international high end shopping style architecture would be really bland. Part of this, of course, is preserving the Banyan tree. Two, water features, like the old IMP a steam still runs under the great tree and beyond. Also a cool contemporary style water falls towards the back and a simple water volcano in the front. Three, good Hawaiian music everywhere, of course this was for the grand opening, hopefully good Hawaiian music will be piped every where and I hope they book good live bands and hula tropes for the weekends, after all they do have a nice stage. Some modern Pacific light fixtures, tiki torches and other very small architectural features but as Kaiwaza says - NO TIKIs. All this is not original, the Ala Moana shopping center has all these features. Lastly if one did not look at these "named branded" stores filled with suits and ties (please...this is Hawaii-the tropics) and just look at the plants and water features one could survive this Hades but of course the stores wouldn't make money - international money. Hmmmm, now if it had a new Trader Vics on top , IMP might earn itself another star.

See for yourself with more picts below:

Some, but very few, tiki architecture features:

Tropical plant features:

Water features:

P.S. Those koa rocking chairs that Kaiwaza is sitting on in the previous post are about $2,000.00 each and there are around 50 of them all around, heirloom pieces just sitting in the weather??? Oh one more photo, tourist tiki shot glasses in the ABC store in the very back of the new IMP.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2016-08-26 00:12 ]