Take a tour of downtown Honolulu with a local architect Saturday and get a new perspective of the area.
Celebrating Architecture Month, a 1-mile walking tour, will stop at 10 downtown buildings representing nearly 100 years of architectural styles. Tours start at the headquarters of the American Institute of Architecture Hawaii on Fort Street Mall; docents at each stop will provide details.
Architect Purnima McCutcheon will be a docent at the Hawai‘i State Art Museum, which has a lot of history behind it. The site was originally home to a hotel, which is where Hotel Street derived its name, she said. "This was before the Royal Hawaiian opened in Waikiki, so it was one of the oldest hotels," she said.
The building became a YMCA for the armed forces; it was razed in the mid-1920s and replaced by the current structure, built in Spanish Mediterranean style, she said.
"The architecture of Hawaii was influenced by the architecture on the mainland, as well as in Europe, as well as in Asia," McCutcheon said. "Architecture does that. It records what’s happening in that particular place and time. It records cultural context and its connection to other places."
Other buildings have features that link to Hawaii, such as the state Capitol. "It’s a modernist building, but it has columns that refer to palm trees and the conical structure that refers to volcanoes," McCutcheon said.
Also on the tour are the C. Brewer, Dillingham Transportation and Alexander & Baldwin buildings; YWCA Laniakea; First Hawaiian Center; Financial Plaza of the Pacific; Harbor Court; and Aloha Tower.
Tours are $15 per person. Reservations and prepayment are required and must be made by 8 a.m. Saturday. Tours start at about 8:30 a.m. and will take about two hours. Visit aiahonolulu.org to make reservations.
