Rainbow Tower looms large in Waikiki vision ~ The Great Journey Today

The city within a city, or resort within a resort, as it might prefer to be known, that is Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki turns 50 next year, but its most iconic feature is a bit younger than that. The 31-story Rainbow Tower, named for its colorful, multistory mosaics, opened in 1968.

Dan Steigelman of Vacaville and Geraldine Picazo of Antioch, who says she has a timeshare next door at the 'Ilikai, quickly identified the tower and its construction date, the subject of last Sunday's Photo Quiz. "We try to visit O'ahu every year. We love it there," Geraldine added.

Of course, those who remember the days of low-rise hotels -- or none at all -- may not have fond feelings about the tower, which wasn't the first in Waikiki but was far from the last. Michael Cordova of San Francisco had this charitable perspective: "Nothing better then floating on a $1.98 floaty bed from ABC in the lagoon and looking up at the tower. Even better when you have had a few lava flows by 11 a.m. and looking up, yeah? Love it or hate it, it always says ALOHA!"

Beverly Russell of San Ramon stayed there in 1989 "when we took our girls to Hawaii their first time." Her own first trip to Hawai'i in 1957 was pretty special: "My parents cruised there on one of the Matson Line ships. Jerry Lewis was also on board. We stayed at the original Hawaiian Village where there were actual 'huts' that were rooms."

The timeline is a little complicated because Hilton Hawaiian Village is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a Hilton property in 2011; the thatched-roof cottages that Russell remembers were built in 1955, a year after Henry Kaiser and Fritz Burns had purchased the original Niumalu Hotel (opened in 1928) on eight oceanfront acres. The first tower, now called the Ali'i Tower opened in 1957, followed by two more before Conrad Hilton gained a majority stake.
In 1968, the Rainbow Tower opened with what is called "the world's largest ceramic tile mosaic"; more than 16,000 tiles form rainbows 286 feet tall by 26 feet wide, on either end of the tower. If you haven't seen it in person, then you might have spotted it on the new "Hawaii Five-O." It's definitely hard to miss.