Design Dilemma: Hawaiian Nighclub

Here is a real dilemma for a designer. I was contacted by Kristen, the manager of Thirty Nine Hotel, an art gallery/nightclub located in Honolulu, Hawaii. The nightclub is one of the first clubs to open in an area that had seen better days, but is now enjoying a renaissance.

Thirty Nine Hotel has the red doors

Kristen had a specific problem. Accessing the club requires climbing 32 steps. You enter the front door and start hiking. Was there some way I could visually shorten the hike, or simply improve the stair-climbing experience? Kristen told me they’d budgeted $8,000 to $10,000 for the stairs. What could I come up with?

Looking up and down the staircase

My first thought was, “Yikes!” There were so many issues, the first of which was the fact that those stairs no longer meet code. Any modern staircase requires a landing after a certain number of stairs (usually 13). This gives people a little rest as they climb. It also breaks their fall if they slip. They’ll stop plummeting after 13 steps instead of 32. Since the building wasn’t new, they were able to bypass those codes. But slippage would still be an issue.

The gallery/club looks nice once you’re upstairs

Second issue – I couldn’t do anything that would decrease the width of the stairs, basically for the same reason. People need to walk up and down those same stairs. Since they’re only 38 inches wide, I needed every inch of space. That ruled out any wall treatments that had any thickness to them.

I also needed to do something with the steps themselves, as the concrete stairs were chipped and cracked.

The lighting was insufficient.

Finally, the owner liked red. Well, at least that wouldn’t be a problem for me. Red is my fave.

Here’s what I came up with.

First, I addressed the stairs themselves. I recommended having them repaired and resurfaced with a textured and stained concrete. That would give enough texture to create a non-slip surface. Staining the concrete a bold color would give the stairs more visual interest. Which color would depend on the color scheme they decided on. I came up with two options.

Stained concrete has infinite design possibilities

To visually shorten the distance up to the club, I suggested painting a graphic, reverse arrow. So, as you look up the stairs, the widening graphic would make the top seem closer. They also needed a new railing, which would be lit with LEDs. Accenting the railing adds interest and increases the safety factor.

A reverse “arrow” with backlit railing

The colorways are red and blue. The walls are painted white (to blend with the club) with either a red or blue “arrow.” Why? Read on.

Blue colorway

Because of all the constraints, I decided to focus most of the fun on the ceiling using one of my favorite secret weapons – lighting. (Thank GOD for whoever invented LEDs. They’re a little expensive, but are so versatile, emit little heat, and best of all, last 8 years.)

Okay, so what am I lighting? I came up with 2 versions of the same, basic idea, which called for suspending panels of an eco-friendly product called 3-Form and back-lighting it with the LEDs. 3-Form comes in 4′ x 8′ panels in varying thicknesses and about a zillion styles. These can be combined with colors to create just about anything.

Panels of Cirque + Pure Red backlit with yellow LEDs

The first option was to hang straight panels that follow the square edges of the ceiling. I specified a red 3-Form embedded with a metal cutout. Back-lighting the red with a yellow LED creates a brilliant, eye-popping effect. Very bold. During the day, with more daylight, the effect is beautiful but more in keeping with an art gallery.

Dyptic 3-Form in Lunar colorway

The second option was to bend panels of Dyptic 3-Form. This product changes color as it’s bent. Backlighting with white LEDs would be less eye-popping, but really fun and hip and cool. Maybe a little more island-like. I wasn’t able to fly to Hawaii to look at the space, which is why I came up with two ideas.

So how does it look? The world may never know. The owner decided to postpone the $70,000 renovations. Ah well, this happens all too often in my world. But it was a fun project to work on. And maybe one day the owner will come to her senses and bring my vision to life.