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Trader Sam's, Disney's new tiki bar now open
Back in June 2010, I posted a six part series about the new tiki project at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. A few weeks ago the restaurant (Tangaroa Terrace) and bar (Trader Sam's) opened...
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Going to Hukilau!
Aloha Friends! I'm heading to the airport to spend the next 5 days in the Florida sunshine enjoying The Hukilau and the Mai Kai. I'll be back next week.
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Mai Kai themed housing - Boca Raton, Florida
If you have ever visited the Mai Kai down in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and thought to yourself “I want to live in this tropical tiki temple!”, you could have had the chance. In 1969 a residential...
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Tiki News - Issue #5
Aloha, Amigos!I'm back after a short summer hiatius of posting to the blog. This is a great week to start things back up again as the grandaddy of all tiki events, Tiki Oasis, rolls back into San...
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Buildings of Hawaii - Book Review
A few months ago I received a special package in the mail from the Society of Architectural Historians. One of the staff members of SAH had read my blog post on the Evolution of the Hawaiian Style Roof...
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Tropical Space Age Architecture- Part 1
Cover Art, Amazing Stories, 1963Tropical Space Age Architecture is a term coined by Desoto Brown of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. He describes the architectural style as "A comtemporary Island...
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Tropical Space Age Architecture- Part 2
“On October 4, 1957, a finger reached out and pushed a button in the Soviet Union, launching Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into orbit. Afraid of losing face during the Cold War, a stunned...
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Tropical Space Age Architecture- Part 3
Not to be outdone by Century 21, the New York World's Fair wanted to do everything bigger and better when they had the world stage 2 years later in 1964. The Century 21 Expo was a quaint 74 acres in...
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Leeward Islands Apartments - Dallas, Texas
Last week I found myself in Dallas, Texas for a couple of days on a business trip. One afternoon I spotted this dingbat apartment complex called the Leeward Islands in the Glencoe neighborhood. The...
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Bali Hai & Outrigger Apts - Stockton, California
This week I was on the road again and happend to be in the Sacramento area and Central Valley of California. While passing through Stockton, I stopped off to explore the Bali Hai and the Outrigger...
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New Horizons Polynesian Garden Homes - Torrance, California
The New Horizons South Bay complex opened it's doors on Ocotber 24, 1963. The 80 acre project, built by noted Los Angeles developer Ray Watt of Southland Builders, has 600 garden homes, a 10,000 sqft...
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Lee Auditorium - Pago Pago, American Samoa
The subject of today’s post is a bit unusual in that this building is actually located in the South Pacific on the Island of Pago Pago in American Samoa. Most of the structures we look at on this blog...
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Trader Sam's Christmas - Disneyland Hotel, California
Earlier this week I was in Los Angeles for a few days for my final business trip of the year. Visiting Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim was at the top of my list of...
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Disneyland Tiki Room - Holiday Overlay?
Last weekend my wife and I hosted our 5th annual Merry Kitchmas Party downstairs in our home tiki bar (The Kona Luanii). All of our good friends and fellow tikiphiles were there, it was a great...
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Tiki News - Issue #6
I thought I'd start the new year with posting the full issue of Tiki News #6 (published January, 1996). This was one of my favorite early issues because of the story about the Tiki/Polynesian dingbats...
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Hawaiian Brutalism
As a reader of this blog and fan of all things tiki, I expect most of you also enjoy other Mid Century architectural styles. Today we look at Brutalism, which surprisingly, can be found in the world of...
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Polynesian Terrace Bird Cafe - Disneyland, California
When Disneyland first opened in 1955, the Adventureland portion of the park included the Adventureland Pavilion restaurant. You can see photos of the original pavilion in this earlier post.In in 1963,...
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Mystery Tikis - Hana Kiki Apartments, Santa Ana, CA?
Back in January 2008, my friend and fellow tikiphile Chris Jepsen posted this mystery tiki photo to his his excellent blog on the history of Orange County, California.Mystery Tiki Photophoto credit:...
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The location of the mystery tikis has been verified. Chris Jepsen went back to visit the Hana Kiki Garden Apartments and they are in fact the correct location of the original 1961 photograph. You can...
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Tahiti Apartments - Torrance, California
The Tahiti Apartments opened their doors for business on Saturday, October 14, 1961 in the SouthBay suburb of Torrance. Did you note the description of the interior courtyard?...Sounds like a great...
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