University of Hawaii’s Snyder Hall to be razed as part of Mini Master Plan

Construction barriers have gone up around Snyder Hall at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in preparation for its demolition in May, marking the start of Phase 2 of the campus’ Mini Master Plan.

Phase 1 was completed with the July opening of the $65 million Life Sciences Building on the Diamond Head end of McCarthy Mall after Henke Hall was removed in 2017.

The former occupants of Snyder Hall, built in 1962, have relocated to the Life Sciences Building, according to a UH news release.

Once razed, Snyder Hall will be replaced with temporary landscaping while UH officials seek state funding for a new building on the site “for flexible learning and office spaces that support modern methods of online delivery, collaboration and advising,” the release said.

The Manoa Mini Master Plan, approved by the UH Board of Regents in 2015, is part of the campus’ Long Range Development Plan. Other projects include the $41 million renovation of Sinclair Library into a student success center and removal, renovation or replacement of three other buildings besides Snyder Hall: Holmes Hall, Keller Hall and Kuykendall Hall.

Also slated for removal are more than 50 one-story portable wooden buildings around campus to create additional outdoor space and make the campus more pedestrian-friendly by converting interior roads — Campus Road, Varney Circle and Correa Road — into pedestrian malls, according to the news release.