Pagoda Hotel and Restaurant
Honolulu

Pagoda Hotel and Restaurant
Honolulu

The Pagoda Hotel and "Floating" Restaurant was developed by H. T. Hayashi of Hayashi Enterprises, which had already constructed three buildings in the area from 1960 onwards. The Pagoda complex opened on May 2, 1964 and consisted of a 12-story hotel of 203 units, the restaurant, and a parking building with 150 spaces on a 1 1/2 acre site. Most of the site was in the Bishop Tract, but a portion was in the Kapiolani Business District and was the first development to be completed in the latter since its dedication on July 9, 1963.

Second Image:  The Pagoda Restaurant seen from Rycroft Street in 1965, the year after its opening. It looks substantially similar in 2021. It was one of a number of round buildings constructed in this period.

Third Image:  Diners in the Pagoda Restaurant looked out on a Japanese-style garden with a small artificial hill with a waterfall that ran into the pond around the building. On the hill was a 13-tiered decorative hand-carved stone pagoda ornament which was the source of the name of the complex. Beyond the garden, visible in the distance was the Ala Moana Building topped by the La Ronde Rotating Restaurant.

DeSoto Brown