Modernism Resources
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THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Hawaii Modernism Context Study 4.1 Specific Building Types 4.1.1 Low and Mid-Rise Commercial and Office Buildings Many of the remaining one to six story commercial and office buildings today are perhaps the most endangered building type of the post-World War II period. They stand on business zoned lands capable of supporting greater densities than the current structures provide. As a result, a large number of these structures have already disappeared from the landscape, especially in Waikiki. Most of the post-World War II, low-rise commercial or office buildings are of masonry construction, often concrete block, with the wood State Savings Plaza (1973) in Kaneohe designed by Johnson-Reese & Associates being a rare exception to this rule. All are modern in style, displaying an assortment of variations related to the movement, ranging from the vestigial rounded corners of streamline moderne to mid-century modern to formalism and expressionism. Most fall under the stylistic classification of mid-century modern, but some employing folded plate roofs or curvilinear roof forms that are expressionist in character, while others with a strong sense of symmetry and pronounced columns represent formalist ideas. Distinctive architectural features include such elements as flat roofs, thin, flat cantilevered concrete canopies or awnings, strong right angles and simple cubic forms, rounded corners, aluminum framed store fronts and entry doors, and projecting vertical elements, which often carried the name of the building. Exterior walls may be smooth concrete, painted concrete block, or clad with veneers such as lava rock, sandstone or thin slabs of Arizona sandstone. Sometimes the formwork is left evident in the concrete walls, and frequently a combination of materials, including veneers and tiles, may be employed to provide character to the surface of the building. To provide relief and the contrast of light and shadow to a flat masonry wall upper stories may have boxes which enframe the windows. Elements less frequently observed, but typical of the period include façade covering metal mesh sunscreens, pergolas, planters, and cantilevered or slanted display windows, the latter supposedly so positioned to reduce glare. Signage, either base mounted or bolted to a surface, was often applied to the buildings and usually used sans serif typefaces or script lettering. Neon signs, which are now rare to find, also were employed. An examination of Kapiolani Boulevard highlights some of the resources as well as concerns confronting those wishing to preserve small commercial buildings of the post-war period. As early as January 1948 Paradise of the Pacific referred to Kapiolani Boulevard as Honolulu’s “Miracle Mile,” because of its similarities to the highly successful two-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, for which the name was originally coined during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Although Kapiolani Boulevard was completed in 1931, it was not until the conclusion of World War II, when many of the wetlands bordering the road between Atkinson Drive and Sheridan Street were filled and curbs and sidewalks installed, that Kapiolani Boulevard truly developed as a commercial corridor. The new, highly modern, post-war buildings well entitled the new thoroughfare to the “Miracle Mile” sobriquet. Here retail store after retail store with individual store parking lots on the front, side or rear, catered to automobile customers rather than the more traditional pedestrian traffic. Using simple signage, and longer buildings oriented to the street with simplified ornamentation recognizable 4-1 Hawaii Modernism Context Study at thirty miles per hour rather than a pedestrian pace, these buildings were a distinct departure from the traditional downtown stores, while retaining their traditional function as independent, stand alone, retail enterprises. During the late 1940s and early 1950s such architects as Vladimir Ossipoff, Alfred Preis, Wimberly & Cook, Lemmon & Freeth, and Johnson & Perkins, designed almost a dozen modern style buildings along the boulevard. However, with the exception of Ossipoff’s Hawaiian Life Building (1951) (Photo 4-1) and Lemmon & Freeth’s Boysen Paint Store (1949) 4-1 (Photo 4-2) and Kenrock Building (1950, 1951, Hawaiian Life Building in 2006 1958), none of these architect-designed buildings Vladimir Ossipoff, 1951, 1311 Kapiolani Blvd. remain. They are joined by another fifteen or so (2006) later fifties and sixties low rise buildings that lie scattered along the two mile stretch of Kapiolani Boulevard between King Street and Kalakaua Avenue. Intermixed with more recent high rises these less massive structures present no coherent temporal whole. A number of the buildings, although still recognizable as mid-century modern in style, have lost their integrity through alterations, remodelings and changes in fenestration. A few should be considered to have high preservation value, including Flamingo’s (1955, 871 Kapiolani 4-2 Blvd) (Photo 4-4) designed by Milton Akiyama, and Kenrock Building the superbly rendered, four story Seaboard Lemmon, Freeth & Haines, 1958, 1400 Kapiolani Finance Building (1956, 1349 Kapiolani Blvd.) Blvd. (Photo 4-5), the work of C. W. Dickey’s successor (2011) firm, Merrill, Simms, & Roehrig. The latter, built by the third largest finance company in the United States at the time of its completion, was completely air conditioned, featured fluorescent lighting, and was considered to be of “modern Hawaiian style” by the Honolulu Advertiser, with its koa interior, lava rock corner, and dark tinted plate glass windows, the earliest known use of this material in Hawaii. The newspaper described the novel window material as, “a new type of glare reducing glass . [which] 4-3 gives the effect of a person wearing dark glasses. Boysen Paint Store Looking from the inside, glare and heat are Lemmon, Freeth & Haines, 1958, 1659 Kapiolani reduced. From the outside the glass appears very Blvd.1949, (2011) 4-2 Hawaii Modernism Context Study dark, almost opaque, eliminating the need for blinds.” In addition to the Kapiolani Boulevard corridor, a number of low-rise retail and office buildings lie scattered around the city, serving as strong individual architectural statements of the design of the period. A few of these received recognition from the Honolulu Chapter of the AIA or appeared in national architectural magazines. These include: the Medical Arts Building (1950, addition, 1954) (Photo 4-6) at King and Victoria streets, designed by Kenji Onodera with Ernest Hara 4-4 handling the addition; I.L.W.U. Memorial Flamingo’s Milton Akiyama, 1955, 871 Kapiolani Blvd. Association Building on Atkinson Drive (1952) (2011) designed by Alfred Preis; Occidental Life Insurance Building (1951, addition 1967) (Photo 4- 7) at Beretania and Piikoi by Lemmon, Freeth & Haines; Piikoi Parkway (1956) at Piikoi Street and Waimanu designed by Clifford Young, and 320 Ward (1962) by Tom Wells, which has undergone an exterior remodeling but its interior court remains intact, if unmaintained. The roman brick Pacific Development Company Building (1954) at Pensacola and Waimanu streets designed by civil engineer Chan Jay Kim, the single story office building at 920 Sheridan Street (1953) designed by Ray Akagi, and the Kenneth Sato designed Miyamoto Buildings 4-5 (1953, 1954) at 1331 Nuuanu, all feature canted Seabord Finance Building Milton Akiyama, 1956, 1349 Kapiolani Blvd. display windows with planter boxes incorporated (2011) into them. The neighbor of the Miyamoto Building at 1365 Nuuanu Avenue (1951) (Photo 4-8), is also worthy of notice, as is the Nuuanu Clinic (1956) designed by Lemmon, Freeth & Haines and the Pang-Chock Clinic (1958) at Nuuanu and Vineyard, which was designed by Clifford Young and incorporates a number of elements similar to the Piikoi Parkway Building. Other examples include the reinforced concrete Professional Center Building (1956) (Photo 4-9) at King and Kaheka streets designed by Ernie Hara, and the five story Varsity Building (1963) (Photo 4-10) on University Avenue, designed by Wimberly & Cook 4-6 to house the First National Bank. The former, with Medical Arts Building its awning windows and aluminum panels, is the Kenji Onodera, 1950, 1010 S. King St. (2011) 4-3 Hawaii Modernism Context Study earliest known curtain wall building in Hawaii. The presence of the panels, which were originally colored, marked the first use of this material west of the Rockies. The Varsity Building was one of several circular buildings constructed in Hawaii during the 1960s along with the fourteen story Waikiki Circle Hotel (1963), the American Security Bank’s Waipahu branch (1963), the twenty one story Holiday Village 4-7 Apartments (1967) at 750 Amana Street, Occidental Life Insurance Building developed by Condominium Hawaii, and the Lemmon, Freeth & Haines, 1951, 1163 S. Beretania St. sixteen story Jade Apartments (1966) in Kaimuki. (2006) Chaminade College’s single story Mystical Rose Chapel (1966) also follows a circular plan, as does the Bank of Hawaii’s branch single story building at Kahala Mall (1964) designed by Raymond Shaw. Hale Aloha’s four cylindrical dormitories at the University of Hawaii designed by Stephen Oyakawa appeared in 1973. In downtown Honolulu several post-war buildings with rounded corners remain in use on Bethel Street, including the four story Plumbers and Fitters Union Building (Photo 4-11) at Hotel street and three story 1165 Bethel Building (Photo 4-12)