While almost everybody knows the majestic, beachfront Moana Hotel, Waikiki’s “first lady,” few may be aware of its uptown cousin, a sail-white, multiwindowed mansion that stands atop a grassy hill near the summit of Pacific Heights Drive, commanding a wide view of Punchbowl Crater, Honolulu and the sea.
Like the hotel that inspired its design, the Hobron-Lai Residence is a graceful wooden building in the Colonial Revival style, with a circular drive and Greek columns supporting its porte-cochere and lanai, said Tonia S. Moy, an architect with Honolulu’s Fung Associates who designed a complete renovation of the house.
Moy will discuss and advise on historically correct renovations Thursday at a free public seminar sponsored by the nonprofit Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, which gave the Hobron-Lai Residence a Preservation Honor Award in 2013. Moy will discuss and advise on historically correct renovations.
“The Moana, built in 1901, was the first hotel in Waikiki,” Moy, who previously worked in the State Historic Preservation Division, said while leading visitors on a tour last week. “The original, four-story wood building was designed by Oliver Traphagen, and the 1918 addition, including the wings, was by Emory and Webb, who designed this house in 1916.”
The house, she said, was built by the family of 19th-century sea captain Coit Hobron, for whom Hobron Lane in Waikiki was named. In the mid-20th century, it was bought and renovated by the John Lai family, owners of Metronome Music in Honolulu. Members of the third family to own the house, Richard and Margot Jamieson, hired Fung Associates to modernize it while complying with historic guidelines.
Moy’s first sight of the three-story, four-bedroom house evoked Sleeping Beauty’s castle. “One side was sagging — at the corner you could see a gap between the foundation and the beam for the lanai,” she said with a laugh. “They had tarps hanging over it because it was leaking in some spots. There were mold and mildew all over the exterior, and the pool was an awful shade of green.”
“Despite some wood rot and termite damage here and there, the house was solid, with good bones,” said the unfazed Moy, who set to work reawakening former splendor while meeting the needs of an active, three-generation family as well as historic-preservation standards. Her team shored up the foundation and gutted and rebuilt the interiors of the kitchen, bathrooms and 1970s poolside guesthouse, whose exterior she integrated with the main house while adding an exercise room and, beneath, a garage and elevator.
“The Hobron-Lai House project demonstrates lessons in balancing preserving historic features with modernizing and modifying a living space,” said Kiersten Faulkner, the foundation’s executive director.
Two other projects also will be presented at the seminar, which will include breakout sessions with Q&As, Faulkner said. “(Presenters) also will talk about applying preservation standards, seeking permits, addressing code requirements and best practices and standards for being a good steward of a historic property.”
Asked whether homeowners could receive a historic designation — and tax exemption — if a house has been altered, say, with the addition of a room or lanai that changes its exterior face, Moy said that “it depends on how it was done. Does it obscure a character-defining feature?” She added that she would discuss character at the seminar.
For instance, she kept some alterations the Lais had made, such as added horizontal windows and a bedroom bay that let in extra light and views “that weren’t really valued in Colonial Revival days” and which themselves are characteristic of mid-century American style.
She pointed out one of her favorite details, a carved wooden treble clef with which the musical Lai family covered their doorbell chimes. It now hides the fuse box in the kitchen.
Thanks to good bones, including hard, dense, old-growth wood that absorbed salt, a preservative, while floating in Honolulu Harbor as it was unloaded, “It’ll last another hundred years,” Moy said as she left, casting a last look down the length of the facade.
>> View additional photos from the Hobron-Lai House in our photo gallery.
PRESERVATION PRACTICE SEMINAR
A free public seminar, sponsored by the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and National Park Service, will be held on how to preserve historic sites.
Case studies to be presented:
1) Architect Glenn Mason and Stevie Whalen of Hawaii Agriculture Research Center will discuss the rehabilitation of 45 historic houses and integration of 37 new houses in the Kunia Village Housing Project in a former plantation camp, which provides low-income housing to farmworkers.
2) Mahealani Cypher of Ko‘olaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club will discuss the Ahupua‘a Boundary Marker program, which produced the official state standard ahupuaa sign for traditional land divisions.
3) Architect Tonia Moy will showcase the rehabilitation of the Hobron-Lai Residence and talk about meeting the secretary of the interior standards for historical preservation, the permitting process and more.
When: 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday
Where: Aloha Tower Marketplace Multipurpose Room 3, 1 Aloha Tower Drive
Other activities: Elaine Jackson-Retondo, preservation partnerships and history programs manager in the NPS West Regional Office, and Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of HHF, also will speak. Followed by interactive breakout sessions.
Info and registration: historichawaii.org
Note: Seminars also will be held through June 21 on Hawaii island, Maui and Kauai, featuring projects on those islands.
