San Diego A-frame (Image Heavy)

Aloha,
As you know, many Polynesian Pop Structures are based on the Polynesian/Melanesian A-frame style of structure. For instance:

Melanesian Men's House


Maori Meeting House

Fijian Style

Shelter Island is the Tiki District of San Diego. Shelter and Harbour Islands were created when they dredged San Diego Harbor To make it deep enough for Nuclear Class Aircraft Carriers. They started building A-frames immediately. These picture were taken between Mort's liquor and the Bali Hai





The Crows Nest. Many of these buildings on Shelter Island house yacht related businesses. I don't know what they were originally built for.





In these examples you can see elements of the "Tiki" A-frame, Carved beams, Wooden Shingles, The slope and pitch of the roof line, pier style columns and other Nautical and Island elements


Nautical styling


This one is my favorite. Cruising World Pacific Yacht Sales



Humphreys Half Moon Inn

This is the Island Palms, rumoured to be the location of the next Tiki Oasis

Lava Rock piers for the "outriggers"

not everyone is proud of their A-frame. Take Boll Weevil for example, as you see in this picture some architect hid the roof line behind this big ugly wall.

Try the 1/2 pound Steer Burger it's un-bollweevable

interior BW




Up the hill in Clairmont Mesa, right by Moki's and Ona Tiki's is this fine example of a fantastic poly pop track house. Pretty cool, huh?


Mahalo,
Al

Thanks Al! I love the A-Frame style, but haven't seen many incarnations of it up here. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled when out and about.

It's an A-Frame fantasia! What a great series of photos, thanks for sharing them. It's easy to get caught up in the jaw-dropping glory of the Half Moon Inn's porte cochere, and totally miss that the island is full of Poly Pop history.

Thank you so much for the pics Al! It brings back a lot of good memories for me. I went to sonar school at the ASW base right there between Shelter and Harbor Islands. Doesn't get much better than that for a duty school! I used to walk all over the place down there, its a cool area.

And the Shelter Island Bollweevil was a frequent stop for thier giant burgers. They used to fill up the whole plate. Yum!

Looking forward to some more pics in your tiki travels.

High quality post.

Thank you

Great pics al. I'm lookin forward to check them out in person at the next oasis

thanks for the great post

Way to bring it, Al!

I hope that rumor comes true.

Here are more photos, which emphasize Humphrey's Half Moon:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=15921&forum=1

I wish I were there instead of here. Great architecture.
You lucky SOB. :)

The restaurant at Humphries

This is one of the reasons I love San Diego...one of the most heavily tiki populated cities in the US (mainland)

Any suggestions on where to go for a few days of RnR ? I'm going there for my birthday weekend, and I want as much TIKI as possible...

"un-bollweevable"!!!

Great pics. I've always wondered if the A-frame's long beam from the "Tahiti" (Humphrey's) was shortened. It looks very different from The architectural drawings, appearing chopped off at an uncomfortable angle inconsistent with the rest of the structures lines.

Anybody got the scoop on the missing swoop?

Okay, another question about Humphreys,

Sometime while I wasn't looking Humphrey's installed a huge sculpture in front of it's famous swooping a-frame, as if there wasn't enough going on out there already. Heck it may have been there for ten years for all I know, but before you cheer with delight, it is NOT a beautiful hand carved tiki.

It is actually...um ...it's...it's ...well, I'm not really sure.

Now before you say it, yes I live pretty darn close and could just storm into the lobby and scream "What the hell is that supposed to be!", but that would not be nearly as fun as playing a pointless guessing game with my new friends at Tiki Central.

Please post your theories here.

Is it the (yawn) sun setting on the ocean waves?

Is it superfluous clutter ruining an otherwise sublime mid-century architectural statement?

Is it the bastard child of MechaGodzilla and Joan Miro?

Is it a squid playing basketball?(God I hope so!)

(A note to San Diego TCr's, yes, going to Humphrey's and actually reading the plaque mounted on the sculpture would be cheating....Oh, yeah, if someone here made the thing, I am soooo sorry. It's lovely.)

(Thanks to Sabina from who's awesome post I borrowed this image.)

[ Edited by: hodadhank 2006-02-04 08:53 ]