Post #783858 by creativenative on Mon, Feb 12, 2018 8:35 PM

Well it was hard to forgive tearing down the old IMP. Architecturally it was truly a Hawaiian sense of place in Waikiki, where it was sorely needed. They could of cleaned the old place up to be a new age tiki gem. Then it was hard to believe they didn’t incorporate modern tiki elements in the new architecture. A steel and glass radical A-frame awning at the entrance would of been cool - not a stupid bell tower, which has no Polynesian significance. I complained a lot at that especially when the owner claimed it was Hawaiian. Where? How? When it finally opened, it was an High-end name-brand mall as expected, but since the damage is done I’ll only talk of the positive things. #1 they do have an open feel, with tropical plants and a steam. #2 they kept the banyan tree and importantly there is a tiki architecture micro museum there as a treehouse. It pays homage to the original IMP developer Donn Beach and Tiki style. #3 There is Hawaiian music, live at times, but no Tikis. The place started out slow and some people got worried that it would be colossal bust but it slowly gained tourist and locals and more stores. There are a couple of new and good food courts and one has a small but nice tiki bar in it. For me, born and raised most of my life in Hawaii, I’ll just give it a barely passing grade, definitely not for the architecture but for their efforts of giving it a Hawaiian ambiance. But I miss the old one, dearly.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2018-02-12 20:39 ]