Kona Surf Resort

78-128 Ehukai Street, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740

1971

Lemmon, Freeth, Haines, Jones & Farrell. Robert Zimmer, interiors.

Concrete

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown, but likely destroyed during hotel remodels.

TVS digital records.

“For the Kona Surf Resort Hotel on the Big Island, Hawaiian Visions, a lighter weight installation was required for the overhead surfaces, and I applied stucco directly by hand to create the forms.” [2]

Tony Sheets assisted Van Sant on this project. He has commented: “We called this technique “sculpted in place” which used cement not concrete and was applied by a “Hoddy” directly to the wall, then we placed “foam stencils” into the cement and did the finish carving.  It was definitely a timely process. [3]

The Kona Surf Resort closed in 2000. “Really locked in a 1970s time warp,” it was renovated and reopened as the Sheraton Keauhou Bay. [4] It changed hands again and reopened in 2020 as the Outrigger Kona Resort and Spa. Images on the hotel website show that Van Sant’s murals are no longer in situ.  

Van Sant also made a seventh floor-to-ceiling wall that appears to have functioned as a concrete dividing ‘screen’ for a dining area in the hotel. Approx. 12 ft. x 25 ft.

Interior photographs of the Kona Surf Resort by Wayne Thom showing Van Sant’s murals in situ February 1972 are available to view at the USC Digital Library: https://doi.org/10.25549/thom-c41-539.

[1] Tom Van Sant: Hawaii-notes-rtf, TVS digital record.

[2] Tom Van Sant, Honolulu Authority Rapid Transportation: Art-in-Transit Call For Artists, Artist Statement, June 19, 2013.

[3] Email exchange with the author, July 13, 2023.

[4] Jane Engle, "New life for former Kona Surf,” Los Angeles Times, September 12, 2004.