The New Embassy Suites and Outrigger Reef Resorts Strive to Be Worthy of Their World-Famous Setting

On first hearing, the idea of renovating and redeveloping Waikïkï Beach sounds ludicrous. It’s simply impossible to improve on this world-famous tourist destination: the two-mile stretch of coast (the name of which means "spouting waters") is already perfect.

Happily, no one is messing with Waikïkï Beach itself. But a dramatic $535 million upgrade is underway across eight acres of nearby shops, resort hotels, and restaurants. It’s the largest renovation in the Waikïkï zone’s history. The result is the Waikïkï Beach Walk, a chic and charming commercial district that’s worthy of its unparalleled setting.

As an important part of this vast effort, an all-new Embassy Suites resort hotel has been designed and built. In addition, the adjacent Outrigger Reef Resort is undergoing a transformation so complete that it amounts to a wholesale rebuilding of the entire complex.

Both properties are owned by Outrigger Enterprises Group (OEG), Hawai‘i’s largest locally-owned lodging and hospitality company. According to Kimberly Agas, operations vice president of the Outrigger Beachfront division, "Outrigger is a kama‘äina company. We were born and raised in Waikïkiï, and so it’s very important to us that this project reflects our home."

Sharing that sense of home pride is Pat Moore, corporate interior designer for OEG. She refashioned interiors of both properties. She began her career in the 1980s with a few rooms at the Outrigger Waikïkï and has been at the job ever since.

"Like the guests I met," she recalls, "I remembered my first visit to Hawai‘i and how much I loved the flowers, the fabrics, the colors, the music and, of course, the people. Over the years I’ve always strived to give our guests a Hawaiian sense of place. I want them to wake up in the morning, look around the room and know they are in Hawai‘i without having to look out the window."

Embassy Suites is the first all-suite hotel located in the heart of Waikïkï. It offers a place to embrace the Aloha Spirit from the moment guests enter the open-air lobby to the time they cross the threshold of any of the 353 spacious one-bedroom suites or 68 two-bedroom suites.

The Suites’ retro design theme, intended to create a fun family atmosphere, includes 1950s-style carved furniture pieces and "Magnum PI" type fabrics for coverlets. The Hula Tower features hula girl lamps with ukuleles and ipo in the corridor carpet, while the Aloha Tower has a pineapple motif. Local artist Al Furtado seemed the perfect choice for the Hula Tower’s art package with his wide array of paintings of Hawaiian style family parties with music and dancing, his colorful lei makers, quilters and a guest favorite--keiki hula dancers.

Common areas of the Suites also reflect a Hawaiian theme that is fun and playful, without becoming campy. The open-air Grand Länai terrace offers a heated swimming pool with flowing waterfall that lights up in different colors in the evening. Guests also enjoy a whirlpool spa and children’s wading pool. Warm trade breezes blow across the Grand Länai where each morning guests enjoy complimentary, cooked-to-order breakfasts and a Manager’s Reception every evening.

Sitting just a few steps away from the Embassy Suites is OEG’s other Beach Walk property, the Outrigger Reef. As its name suggests, the resort highlights Hawai‘i’s ocean heritage and voyaging history--an apt theme for a property located on Waikïkï Beach.

The Outrigger is being renovated so completely that Agas says it has been effectively rebuilt to the tune of a $110 million investment. When completed later this year, the new Outrigger Reef will feature a new porte-cochere and hotel entry reminiscent of a traditional canoe longhouse, complete with a Ho‘aloha, a carefully restored koa wood canoe originally crafted more than a century ago.

As guests sit down and check in, they can gaze at an extraordinary collection of 18 images of Pacific Basin canoes created by renowned historian and artist, Herb Kawainui Kane. Then they can make their way to one of the hotel’s 639 remodeled guest rooms or 44 enlarged suites, which were designed to have an "indoor-outdoor" feeling. Colors are elegant, warm and tropical.

All art on the guest room floors of the Outrigger Reef is by Hawai‘i diving enthusiast and photographer, Dr. Glenn Poulain. Eye-catching color, shape and details of many different types of stony and soft corals, sea urchins and anemones surprise guests with the unseen beauty beneath the ocean.

Countless other Island touches throughout the resort keep the Hawaiian theme vibrant and authentic. Agas says, "I’m most proud of the cultural elements that have been integrated into all aspects of the hotel’s design. Our canoe hale entry way, the landscaping of native Hawaiian plants, the showcases built into the lobby that house wonderful artifacts--they all contribute to a sense of island living, gracious hospitality and the hotel’s Hawaiian setting."

Why is OEG taking such care with renovation of these two landmark properties? The reason is not merely commercial opportunism, but a matter of regional and cultural integrity. The company is also motivated by a desire to meet the high expectations of visitors to Hawai‘i’s premier tourist destination. "We have been given a great responsibility," says Embassy Suites Waikïkï Beach Walk general manager Bob Yeoman, "to deliver to our guests a vacation of a lifetime that they can only experience in Hawai‘i."

With their new designs and features so deeply rooted in Hawaiian values, the Embassy Suites and the Outrigger Reef both deliver on that promise. They are indeed worthy of the beach of the "spouting waters."