The Waikiki Neighborhood Board and residents of a Kuhio Avenue condominium are contesting a developer’s plan for a 34-story condominium-hotel, arguing that the tower’s orientation violates special Waikiki design guidelines.
Los Angeles-based developer Pacrep LLC announced plans in July for the 459-unit tower called 2121 Kuhio at the corner of Kuhio Avenue and Kalaimoku Street toward the Ewa end of Waikiki.
The board and more than a dozen owners of units in the Four Paddle condo mauka of the 2121 Kuhio site expressed objections to the project in letters to the city Department of Planning and Permitting responding to Pacrep’s draft environmental assessment.
Several Four Paddle owners complained that sweeping ocean views they enjoy over Fort DeRussy park would be utterly blocked. Under state and county regulations, views of private property owners aren’t protected.
But a few Four Paddle owners also pointed out, as did the neighborhood board, that Waikiki Special District Design guidelines specifically call for the long axis of new towers to be oriented in a mauka-makai direction to preserve public mauka views and natural ventilation.
“Please reason with these developers, and come to a conclusion that does not create a wall in Waikiki, and offer a big zero to the community,” wrote Four Paddle resident Dave Lawrence.
Brian Kluess, another Four Paddle resident, said the tower’s proposed orientation and scale will overshadow surrounding neighborhoods and block public views of the Koolau Mountains from Fort DeRussy.
The orientation of high-rise buildings has become a growing issue in Honolulu this year, with two other development plans drawing strong public reactions to proposed towers.
One of those other plans involves a 43-story condo called Symphony Honolulu in Kakaako Ewa of Neal Blaisdell Center. Rules established last year by the Hawaii Community Development Authority, a state agency regulating development in Kakaako, call for the long axis of towers to run parallel with major mauka-makai streets within 20 degrees. That would require the Symphony tower be built parallel to Ward Avenue. But the agency granted an orientation variance in May after a contentious public hearing. The Symphony tower will now be built parallel to Kapiolani Boulevard.
The other plan involves transforming Ward Centers into a community with 22 towers. Landowner Howard Hughes Corp. announced earlier this month that it would align nearly all the towers to comply with HCDA’s orientation rule even though the project is grandfathered under old rules with no orientation requirement.
That move by Hughes Corp. revised a master plan by the property’s former owner, General Growth Properties, which intended to align about half the towers with their long sides parallel to the ocean.
For the 2121 Kuhio project, the developer’s draft environmental assessment includes a section on Waikiki design guidelines but doesn’t mention the mauka-makai orientation provision. Instead, it emphasizes how the tower’s proposed orientation supports view corridors and open spaces along streets also called for in the guidelines.
Kusao & Kurahashi Inc., a local planning and zoning consultant representing the developer, insists that the tower’s orientation is consistent with Waikiki design guidelines largely because it better preserves view corridors and open space along Kuhio.
“The proposed ewa/diamond head building orientation is sensitive to the need to protect public views from Kalakaua Avenue and from Kuhio Avenue minimizing impact to the view corridors along these two major vehicular and pedestrian accessways into and through Waikiki,” the consultant wrote in response to the board’s position that the tower’s orientation is inconsistent with the design guidelines.
The consultant also wrote that Pacrep’s plan allows the tower to be set back farther from Kuhio to provide more open space along the street.
“The mauka/makai orientation … is not in the best interest of public views which are better served by an ewa/diamond head orientation,” the consultant’s letter to the board said.
Jeff Merz, a planner and Waikiki Neighborhood Board member, disagrees with the consultant’s conclusions. “We believe the public views are (negatively) impacted by the proposed orientation,” he said.
An earlier plan for the site by another developer specifically cited the Waikiki design guidelines as a reason for positioning that tower with a mauka-makai orientation. That earlier project was described in a 2006 environmental assessment, and the neighborhood board voted 10-4 to support the plan.
Pacrep’s consultant contends that the previous plan failed to consider significant view corridors in the Waikiki design guidelines.
This reasoning is similar to what was put forth by Symphony Honolulu developer Oliver McMillian, which contended that setting back its tower farther from two major thoroughfares — Kapiolani Boulevard and Ward Avenue — was more important than minimizing loss of mauka-makai public views from other vantage points.
George Brown, a longtime Four Paddle unit owner, suggested in a letter that the only view the developer of 2121 Kuhio wants to preserve is an ocean view from units in the $275 million planned condo-hotel intended for sale to individual buyers at an average price of more than $654,000.
Brown stands to lose a “fantastic” ocean view, as do many other owners in the 25-story building that was built with its long axis parallel to the ocean before the orientation language was added to the Waikiki Special District in 1996.
Some Four Paddle owners want the 2121 Kuhio project stopped. But some said they support a tower on the site if its narrow side faced their building.
Edward Schriber, who bought a Four Paddle unit in June, called the mauka-makai orientation at 2121 Kuhio a “win-win” for everyone.
Four Paddle resident William Harpenau, who created the website 2121kuhiotower.com opposing the Pacrep tower, suggested that Pacrep can develop an attractive building with a mauka-makai orientation.
“This tower will have the best views in this entire area of Waikiki with green park land in front and blue ocean beyond, he wrote. “It’s very difficult for anyone to believe that there is no viable alternative for a change in building orientation with such a prime location and the views this will have in either orientation.”
Elizabeth Anderson lives on the mauka side of Four Paddle. She also urged Pacrep to change the tower orientation. “The huge wall like structure that parallels the ocean in the current proposal will drastically affect the openness and the community feeling of the area,” she wrote.
Some Four Paddle residents are asking the Planning and Permitting Department to reject Pacrep’s position in its draft environmental assessment that the proposed tower would have no significant impact.
The neighborhood board isn’t requesting that and hasn’t voted to support or oppose the project, but the board in its letter asks that its concerns be adequately addressed. Besides the orientation, other concerns the board raised include the use of reflective glass and the tower’s form.
Waikiki design rules say buildings should avoid or limit highly reflective glass and be designed with a graduated stepped form as opposed to a flat facade.
Pacrep’s consultant in its response to the board said it would direct the project architect to address the glass issue, but said the tower achieves a stepped effect with physical changes at the second, fifth, sixth, 34th and 35th floors.
Merz said he expects the developer will be forced to rework its project if the city concludes the project would have a significant environmental impact.
The developer also needs a Waikiki Special District Major permit, which project opponents are expected to contest if 2121 Kuhio’s environmental assessment is approved.
Pacrep hopes to receive the approvals and start construction as early as March.
