I sometimes write about dystopian futures (I think we’re in one).
A recent trip through the Honolulu airport made me think more so about this. HNL is a sad state of affairs. Just moribund and not well maintained since the 60's, when it opened up. Even when I first came in the 90s I was a little surprised how old fashioned it was. They were doubling down hard on that brown 70s motif, at a time when everyone else was going hardcore emerald green. But at least I got lei'd when I got off the plane. That was quite a shock and unexpected too but it sure made me feel like I was in Hawaii. Culturally apropos.
The architecture of Honolulu? Not culturally appropriate. It's like stuck in the 60's. Like they had a hot charging time throwing up tons of concrete brutalists probably because it was en vogue at the time. Just banal concrete hotels that have the same look as any other 1960's post-colonial port city. Nowadays there's some glass sky scrapers but they still manage to keep these modern block forms in their new constructions. Perhaps ironically as a nod to the local, historical, architectural context, which is not that historical or local at all.
The greatest joke is the Capitol, whose form is supposed to evoke pineapple palms but really just looks like your archetypal modern art piece of the 1960s.
To me, all I see is Revelle College at UCSD, which was also built at the same time.
Maybe they were designed by the same architectural firm and the marketing team just switched up "California palm" with "pineapple palm" during the sales pitch.
All I gather from Honolulu's architecture is some formful-characterless city. This is no judgement on the unique culture and spirit of Hawaii; just the architecture in Honolulu is what I like to call Modern Bland. Waikiki is not actually oriented towards the beach. It's a warren of concrete structures which turn in on themselves. Let's turn the people back on themselves so they don't escape to the true natural beauty outside. Let's corner them with malls and keep them in as much as possible. That's the only reason I can think of for why Waikiki is designed such as it is. That or they wanted to prevent protest/people gatherings through urban design as goes the urban legend at Warren College at UCSD.
The whole airport is designed for another time with open and free access in such a way where you can pull right up to the airport gate with your car. Not possible these days with all the security measures. Instead, the airport authority has closed down all the driveways which used to circumcise the terminals and completely cut them off from external traffic. Now they are just empty driveways with poorly maintained concrete from the 60's in need of repair and patching.
Also en vogue from the 70's were payphones right next to the terminal entrance, so you could call your ride and be near the kerb ready to hop in the car when the operator called you back with updates regarding the whereabouts of your driver. This was a two man job - one to answer the phone and another person to run back and forth between the person on the payphone and kerb to give real time updates. It was a risky business to leave your line unattended as someone else was likely to swoop in on your perch, hang up the phone, and then use it for their own purposes. Notice the concrete waiting blocks next to the entrance. That was for the runner, who would get tired of his endless running back and forth and need a place to sit halfway between the phone booths and kerb.
Alas, today they've updated these payphone stalls by removing the payphones and leaving the electrical socket in place. Mmm, you used to call me on a payphone...
Things are truly stuck in the 70's. Look at this - they even still use furniture from the 70's.
Look at those shapes. As a side, I think its great that it has such a long, useful life. I don't know where my carbon offsets are going but at least here I know these benches have been in good service for the last 50 years.
They even still fly Boeing 747s to this airport!
Since when did SQ fly as DHL?
I love ANA. She has the best artwork.
Oddly, the food court for the entire airport consists of only three fast food restaurants: a California Pizza Kitchen, a wanna be Panda Express, and a Burger King. The Burger King is the most expensive in the world at $20 for a whopper meal.
After my super lux, expensive meal I walked over to the terminal and up to the bo ouarding gate at 12:13 pm. Thought it was gonna be an empty flight. There was no one in the terminal. Thought my 12:45pm flight boarded at 12:15 pm but I misread the ticket and said the boarding ends at 12:15 pm!