Tower’s glass shines bright, violates rule, stumps HCDA board

A state board is still not sure what to do about a developer building a condominium tower in Kakaako with glass siding that doesn’t comply with a rule governing development in the area.

The nine-member board of the Hawaii Community Development Authority said it needed more time to make a decision after a nearly three-hour meeting Wednesday that was the fifth public hearing on the issue involving the Symphony Honolulu, which is rising at the mauka-Ewa corner of Ward Avenue and Kapiolani Boulevard.

Hearings, which have included expert witness testimony and hours of board deliberations with attorneys, started in July.

Several new details were presented at Wednesday’s meeting that shed more light on the matter, including a determination that the glass being installed on Symphony by San Diego-based developer OliverMcMillan is one of the most reflective available on the market for tower wall construction.

A consultant for the HCDA looked at more than 100 glass window products from three dominant manufacturers, and said the range of reflectivity ranged from 4 percent to about 45 percent. Symphony’s glass came in at about 45 percent, according to the project’s glass consultant, Jon Weir of California-based JA Weir Associates.

However, the rule at issue with Symphony has to do with how much light passes into the tower, which glass consultants for OliverMcMillan and the HCDA agree have no correlation to reflectivity.

“There really is no correlation,” said Deepak Neupane, HCDA director of planning and development.

The HCDA glass rule regulates visual light transmission, or VLT, into the building. Neupane has previously said that the intent of this rule was in part to limit reflectivity.

There is another part of HCDA’s glass rule that expressly prohibits “highly reflective, mirrored and opaque” windows. But the term “highly reflective” is not defined, so the HCDA doesn’t consider Symphony to be in violation of this rule.

The HCDA’s rule, which applies to the Kakaako area bounded by Ala Moana Boulevard and King, Piikoi and Punchbowl streets, is unique. The city Department of Planning and Permitting has no rules governing reflectivity of glass towers in other areas.

HCDA board members have been critical of OliverMcMillan for not mentioning Symphony’s problem with the VLT glass rule to the HCDA before ordering glass and starting construction.

The agency discovered that Symphony didn’t meet the VLT glass rule after staff discussions on another proposed tower led the agency earlier this year to ask OliverMcMillan whether the Symphony glass complied. At that point, much of the tower’s glass was already installed.

Daniel Moats, the Symphony project architect with Architects Hawaii Ltd., told HCDA’s board Wednesday that he was aware of the VLT glass rule when the glass was selected but that he wasn’t aware that the rule’s intent was to regulate reflectivity.

OliverMcMillan has said it considered the rule defective because in its view the rule couldn’t be met without breaking what it considered a more important rule on achieving a certain level of energy efficiency. Glass that lets less light in also keeps a building’s inside cooler and reduces energy consumption by air conditioning.

The HCDA insists that the VLT and energy-efficiency rules can both be met, given that other building design elements besides glass affect energy consumption.

Still, the agency has acknowledged that it perhaps should amend its glass rules so that a forest of shiny-walled towers doesn’t heat up surrounding areas by concentrating and redirecting sun beams that can affect the sight of pedestrians, drivers and other residents.

At Wednesday’s hearing, several area residents urged the board to reprimand OliverMcMillan.

“They should change the windows out,” said Kakaako resident Sharon Moriwaki. “I know it’s severe.”

Moriwaki and others said letting OliverMcMillan retain the improper glass, which is almost completely installed on the 45-story tower, would set a precedent and embolden other developers to flout HCDA rules.

Other individuals, mainly with connections to the Symphony project, expressed support for OliverMcMillan mostly in written submissions to the board last month.

The developer itself submitted photographs showing blinding reflections off other buildings including Keola Lai, One Waterfront Towers, Imperial Plaza, 909 Kapiolani, Hokua and Ko‘olani — all of which were built before the glass rule was adopted in 2011. The developer also showed more pleasant photos of glass buildings in Honolulu reflecting images of clouds, blue sky and trees.

About 45 Symphony condo unit buyers have submitted form letters that tout the energy-reduction benefits of the tower’s glass.

Kyle Shelly, a Symphony unit buyer, said in written testimony that replacing the glass would require him to spend more money and perhaps force him to pay a higher mortgage interest rate.

“These are costs/consequences that … I would like the HCDA to consider in its decision making,” Shelly wrote.

The next meeting to resume deliberations over the Symphony glass is scheduled for Sept. 16 at 1 p.m. in the agency’s meeting room at 547 Queen St.