State reveals design for vertical public school in Kakaako

State officials showed off what Hawaii’s first vertical public school might look like: a 10-story structure with big glass windows and lanai next to an existing city park and playground in Kakaako.

The state Department of Education unveiled renderings Friday for what is being dubbed Pohukaina Elementary, which is projected to serve 750 students and start construction in 2019.

The roughly estimated $40 million school will be paid for by the state and developed by private firm Alaka‘i Development, which has been selected to build one residential tower with 390 moderately priced rental apartments on land owned by the state next to Mother Waldron Park.

A second, smaller tower with low-income rental apartments would follow the first tower and the school through a request for proposals to be issued by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., a state agency that helps finance affordable housing. The whole project with two towers and the school are part of a long-delayed project called 690 Pohukaina.

“Just imagine a family living in the Kakaako area, and particularly in our future rental community, who will be able to drop their kids off at school and walk or bike to work in the nearby urban core,” Jon Wallenstrom, an Alaka‘i principal, said in a statement. “It will provide the people of Honolulu with a marvelous lifestyle and will help address public school expansion needs in an area undergoing change.”

DOE officials have said they expect Pohukaina Elementary can be a model for other future schools in Honolulu as more dense high-rise homes are created in the urban core in close proximity to stations of the city’s planned rail line.

“It will not be like any other school because we’re going vertical,” said DOE Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi.

Wallenstrom said some aspects of the school, with about 100,000 square feet of space, could change as detailed design plans advance.

Architecture firms working on the school’s design are WRNS Studio, a San Francisco firm with a Honolulu office, and Honolulu-based Ben Woo Architects.