Missing outlets
keep new UH test
kitchen cold
Frustrations are heating up
as the $27 million lab
sits idle
By Susan Kreifels
Star-Bulletin
THE new Agricultural Science Building at the University of Hawaii-Manoa has been open since January, but the stoves are still cold in its test kitchen.
There's no place to plug in the 220-volt electrical cords. Kitchen ventilation and air conditioning don't meet safety and health requirements.
So classes that were to be taught there this fall likely will move to George Hall across campus. A lab for testing food for taste and appearance -- the only such lab on campus -- will sit idle unless food is cooked elsewhere, then delivered.
Total estimated cost to solve the problems and make the kitchen fully operational: $300,000-$400,000.
University officials are understandably sensitive about the dilemma, as it comes on the heels of project problems at the $48-million Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Building in 1997 and the $1.2-million Wahine softball field in 1998. It's hard to trace blame for the situation over the 13 years it took to open the test-kitchen doors. When the building was conceived in 1987, plans included a lab with hot plates. The decision to upgrade to stoves wasn't reflected in final design plans, nor were ventilation and air-conditioning systems revised to meet current commercial codes.
Noel P. Kefford, the dean who kick-started funding and was involved in the initial planning, retired, then passed away. Other involved faculty have moved.
Current faculty members weren't consulted. Not until they brought in stoves in January did they find there weren't proper outlets or ventilation.
"There was no one left to shepherd it through," said Douglas Vincent, professor and chair of the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences. Despite the kitchen's shortcomings, faculty members scattered among six buildings were grateful "after struggling so long to get things moving."
Vincent, who was not involved in the planning, estimated it could cost $300,000-$400,000 to make the kitchen fully operational. But a request for capital-improvement funds won't be considered until the next Legislature convenes in January.
It wasn't just faculty who were impatient for the building to open. When ground was finally broken in 1997, Sen. Daniel Inouye told UH to "get moving," said Inouye's chief of staff in Hawaii, Jennifer Goto Sabas.
"We have had money in our pocket a long, long time (for the building) and pork, if kept too long, is rotten," Inouye said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Goto Sabas said the holdup wasn't due to government funding, which totaled $27 million in matching state and federal money. She said snags between the state and university in the planning and design delayed construction.
Total state funding was available by 1994, according to records with the Department of Accounting and General Services, which oversees such projects. Planning, however, was completed in 1992.
DAGS felt compelled to hire two architects rather than one: Sam Chang and Associates and John Hara and Associates. But the companies had never worked together, separate tasks were not assigned in the beginning, and labs in the building were technically demanding, UH spokespersons said. So it took four years to complete their work.
When the project was put out for bid in 1996, costs had risen, and the original five stories were cut to four. A.C. Kobayashi won the construction bid for the 86,000-square-foot building, which cost close to the original $27 million.
Asked if there is a review process to consult with departments about changing needs and to look at different building codes, "nobody knows of such a mechanism in place," UH spokesman Jim Manke said.
Meanwhile, knowing the UH budget pipeline is dry, faculty members have brainstormed for ways to raise funds to renovate the kitchen, and the community is starting to respond. For example, the pork industry and local chefs have offered to sponsor events to raise money for renovations.
The medical school, cancer-research center and commercial food industry are interested in using the sensory-evaluation lab attached to the kitchen, where taste, texture, appearance and other food factors can be tested. But that lab will stand idle unless food is prepared elsewhere.
"We have friends in the culinary and food industry," Vincent said. "There is real interest in the possibility of using this (kitchen and lab) not only for food products but for nutrition research."
Still, the kitchen will probably stay cold for awhile. Wayne Iwaoka, a professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, will likely teach his two food classes in George Hall instead of the new building since "there wouldn't be any way to do any baking or cooking."
Iwaoka's main concern: Whatever happens next should be a coordinated effort. "We cannot have different people who want to use the new facility trying to equip it." Otherwise, "we might end up with the same situation."
MISSED THE MARK
A look at some other problematic projects in the university system:
 It's estimated that fixing shortcomings with the test-kitchen design at the University of Hawaii-Manoa's $27 million Agricultural Science Building will cost $300,000-$400,000. Though the building opened in January, the test kitchen can't be used for cooking until problems are remedied.
The $1.2 million Wahine softball stadium was built improperly in 1998. More than $600,000 in renovations were completed in 1999 to make it fit to use. The stadium architect paid $326,000 of the fix-up cost.
The $48 million Pacific Ocean Science and Technology Building that opened in 1997 was plagued by a lack of furnishings, structural problems and air-conditioning snafus. Four of nine floors weren't finished because money ran out.
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