The Royal Hawaiian is great example of a large “Doo Wop” building, and how well the Tiki variation of it can be expressed on such a structure. It is located at Orchid Road and Ocean Avenue on the beach in Wildwood Crest. It has two distinctive sections – the East and West wings.
The East was originally constructed in 1969, designed by Lou Morey. It originally had four floors, with the fifth likely added not long after. Units stretch across each level, and are accessed by common area/balcony from the front of each unit. The exterior walls are covered throughout in “lava rock”, to fine effect. Up until recently, louvered outer doors in peach/orange were used throughout, though these were removed before the 2010 season, leaving behind pale green doors. This new color looks pretty good, but the doors themselves, particularly due to their divided pane style glass, look a bit out of place aesthetically. All units feature stationary floor to ceiling glass. Round, white glass lights hang from the “ceiling” above each unit. Attractive, metal railings with mostly horizontal bars appear to be in a natural finish, complimented by "bamboo" support posts shooting through the floors. Before the 5th floor was added, these "bamboo" supports went above the roof. I believe all these features are original from ’69, which is great to see. Outer stairways are towards the Northeastern end, near the oceanfront units. The roof is accessible from these stairs, where a fenced in deck area is available.
The West was constructed in 1978, with Lou Morey brought in to design it as well. Interestingly, there isn’t any apparent attempt to duplicate the existing original section here. Such a choice can make for disaster, but it worked out well here, with the complex looking great as a whole, even if the East original section is relatively more attractive to my eye. The ground level here is open space for parking underneath the Motel. Floors two through five have units throughout. All units are accessed from a rear facing, common balcony, and have private balconies facing Orchid Road. The walls are white painted masonry, with a strip of lava trim between every other column of units, where the original looking white, round lamps sit. The private balconies have somewhat of a “box” appearance, with their solid masonry sidewalls, with only the forward facing section having metal railings. Outer stairways for the West wing are located at the Southwestern end (rear of West wing), and have an interesting appearance that makes me think of the Guggenheim in NYC, due to the look of its outer walls and curved ends. The Western wall faces Ocean Avenue and is finished in white painted masonry and liberal amounts of lava on each end. The upper half of the masonry portion has large, distinctive neon signs. The Motel’s name lights up in pink, with Royal written diagonally upward, and HAWAIIAN straight across. A neon palm tree is below. It is partially revised from the earlier design – HAWAIIAN is the same, though it was previously yellow. The script for Royal has changed. The palm was originally a tiki mask. Both the previous and current iterations of the signage are very attractive and distinctive.
A center section links the two wings, and also contains a restaurant. A two story round section on the ground houses the office, with its roof used as a sundeck that’s accessible from the third level. At the top, above the 5th floors, is the Royal Hawaiian’s most distinctive feature – a one story, flat topped round section. Some call it a saucer. It is used as the owners’ residence. If I owned the Royal Hawaiian, I’d do the same.
An attractive, irregular shaped pool travels from about halfway down the side of the East Wing, and partially in front of it. A faux Hawaiian Atoll is an original feature of the pool, and has Wildwood Palms towards its ends. The kiddie section has a fountain. A smaller pool is fenced off to the west, which may be a hot tub. Railings matching the ones used for the East Wing balconies border the pool area from the Motel and beachfront, with solid, masonry ones at the street side, with round, white lights here and there along its top. Additional parking spaces are laid out west of the main pool area across Orchid Road, and on the west end by Ocean Avenue. A rectangular, one story, pitch roof structure is a relatively newer addition, and houses conference and game rooms. It is located between the West Wing of the Motel and the street side parking there.
To see past discussion on the Royal Hawaiian, and if you wish to contribute further to it, please visit the thread linked below from the Doo Wop Preservation League's Message Board:
http://www.doowopusa.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1267845300
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