A new, privately owned public park in the urban core of Honolulu is set to open Friday ahead of a state-mandated deadline, and it will debut in the holiday spirit with a high-tech display of lights.
Development firm Howard Hughes Corp. is delivering the 1.5-acre park at its master-planned Ward Village community where three condominium towers have opened in the past three years and two others are under construction.
The park, which fronts the mauka side of Auahi Street and is named Victoria Ward Park after the kamaaina landowner whose grand estate once covered the area, will be an initial piece of a future 3-acre central plaza within the 65-acre community envisioned for an estimated 4,500 homes and 1 million square feet of retail space.
The initial piece of the public plaza faced a January deadline to open as a requirement imposed by a state agency regulating development in
Kakaako, the Hawaii Community
Development Authority.
HCDA created the deadline, which was earlier than the developer wanted, as a condition of approving a high-rise called ‘A‘ali‘i which recently became the fifth condo tower to rise at Ward Village.
As part of the grand opening for Victoria Ward Park, Hughes Corp. will present what it calls a “light garden” featuring a field of more than 2,300 artificial flowers illuminated by roughly 25,000 LED lights in part of the park.
The display, being installed by San Francisco firm Symmetry Labs, will be free and in operation 6-9 p.m. daily through Feb. 7, though the garden will stay open until 10 p.m. on opening weekend.
A “glow bar” serving pupu and drinks also will be in the park Thursdays through Saturdays this month.
A path through the garden display will allow visitors to stroll among the lights, which are programmed to react to people walking, to the wind and to sound. Musical performances in the park also are scheduled and will have a choreographed connection to the lights, Hughes Corp. officials said.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind park in the urban core and a one-of-a-kind art installation,” said Todd Apo, senior vice president of community development in Hawaii for Texas-based Hughes Corp.
Symmetry Labs describes itself as producing wonder using lights. The company has created projects for festivals, corporate uses and public art installations, including a four-story artificial tree with 25,000 leaves lit by programmable LEDs that was part of last year’s Burning Man gathering of artists in a Nevada desert.
Hughes Corp. said the inspiration behind the light garden was the reintroduction of nature into Honolulu’s urban core. The park itself was built on land previously occupied by warehouses.
As new towers are built surrounding the plaza area, Hughes Corp. plans to add more elaborate elements to what is now mainly a grassy area with a few clusters of coconut and hala trees. Such elements are slated to include water features, shade pavilions and walking paths.
The existing park also will host events — such as outdoor movies and yoga classes — that have been held in a courtyard at the nearby IBM Building headquarters of the development firm.
