Team Lally Hawaii Real Estate Podcast

Sustainable Design & The Future of Hawaii Real Estate with Kevin Kennon

Kevin Kennon · January 18, 2026

Entrepreneur · Wellness · Leadershipin

Interview with Kevin Kennon

Sustainable Design & The Future of Hawaii Real Estate with Kevin Kennon

Podcast: Team Lally Hawaii Real Estate Podcast

January 18, 2026

Kevin Kennon is an internationally renowned architect with more than 40 years of experience designing landmark cultural, commercial, and hospitality projects around the world. Known for combining design ambition with deep human insight, he brings a humanity-first philosophy to architecture — creating spaces that do more than impress visually; they shape how people feel, connect, recover, and remember an experience.

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Key topicsThe best hospitality design starts with how a guest should feelKevin argues that hospitality should be designed from the inside out: not around spectacle, but around emotional experience. From elevated walkways and dark-sky observatories to culinary greenhouses and wellness-centered amenities, he shares how architecture can help people reset, regenerate, and connect more deeply with a place. True luxury is no longer extravagance, it is coherenceThe most memorable hospitality experiences do not win because they are bigger, flashier, or more excessive. They win when the architecture, landscape, service, wellness offering, and pace of the experience all feel aligned. Kevin explains why the future of luxury lies in spaces that feel calm, intentional, and deeply attuned to the guest. Good Bones — Why the Best Return Is in the Building Already StandingKevin Kennon has spent 40 years putting buildings up and taking old ones apart, including the conversion of the American Express Building in Tribeca and the rebuild of Macy's Herald Square. Most developers price a site as if the structure on it were a cost to clear, when the frame, floors and shell are often the most valuable thing in the deal. He walks through how he reads an existing building for what it can carry, where reuse beats new construction on cost and timeline, and where it does not. Listeners leave able to look at an older property and tell whether the return sits in the land or in what is already standing.View all topics →