2023 Walking Tour: Vineyard Boulevard, and Kauluwela

The national theme for Docomomo US for 2023 is urban renewal, which will be embraced in Docomomo Hawaii’s annual walking on Saturday October 21, 2023. Starting at 10 a.m. at the Liliha Public Library and concluding at Queen Emma Gardens. The tour will look at a number of the Honolulu Redevelopment Agency’s (HRA) projects, as well as several projects which emerged from the 1950s expansion of Vineyard Boulevard and the private redevelopment of Liliha Street on the lands adjoining Vineyard.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) in the 1950s envisioned Vineyard Boulevard to be the main feeder for traffic from the Lunalilo Freeway to serve downtown Honolulu. During the period July 1956- October 1959, the DOT expanded the boulevard to six lanes between Alapai Street and the Kapalama Canal, commencing its project in July 1956 with the removal of over one hundred buildings, including the Harris Memorial Church and the Kwan Yin Temple, both of whose replacements will be on the walking tour. Many other buildings removed by the DOT were in the Honolulu Redevelopment Agency’s Kukui Gardens Housing project.

In addition to the DMJM (lead architect Cesar Pelli) designed Kukui Gardens, other HRA projects included in the tour will be Minoru Yamasaki’s Queen Emma Gardens, Geoffrey Fairfax’s Liliha Square, and Leo Wou’s Kauluwela I and II housing projects, as well as his Aloha United Fund headquarters. Other HRA projects featured will be the Keola Hoonanea elderly housing project designed by Honolulu architect Frank Slavsky, and George Walters’ Nuuanu Stream promenade, the largest landscape project undertaken by the HRA. Other buildings along the tour route will include the Liliha Library, the former American Security Bank designed by Edwin Bauer, the Lung Kong Kung Shaw Society Hall, and the Liliha Sunrise Apartments, all along Liliha Street.

The tour promises to be a stimulating mix of familiar mid-century favorites and other often overlooked designs.