Adventurer designed local
sites for 35 years

PEER ABBEN / AWARD-WINNING ARCHITECT

OBITUARIES

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By Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.com

Peer Abben, a prominent Honolulu architect for 35 years, died Aug. 5 in Mill Valley, Calif. at the age of 85.

Originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, Abben lived an adventurous life, counting his ascent to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya as one of the highlights, said his friend Art Freedman of Honolulu.

Abben requested that his ashes be scattered in Denmark, on Mount Kilimanjaro and in the ocean off of Diamond Head, Freedman said. His daughter Lee Skutch of Mill Valley plans to carry out his wishes, Freedman said.

Abben was a member of the American Institute of Architects, headed his own firm, Abben and Utzon Inc., and was an associate architect for Bank Building Corp. of America, according to past news reports. He was an award-winning architect in Denmark and East Africa, a 1965 article said.

Abben moved to Hawaii and became an American citizen in 1963. He left Hawaii in 1998 to be with Skutch.

According to Freedman, Abben designed numerous private residences, office buildings and condominiums on each of the major islands, among them the Kapaa Shore Resort on Kauai, the Kona Bali Kai condominium project on the Big Island and the Dowsett Terrace Apartments, a $3.5 million luxury apartment complex at 217 Prospect St.

He did extensive work for the U.S. military designing buildings at Pearl Harbor and Barbers Point, Freedman said.

In a 1967 article he wrote for a Honolulu daily, Abben said the environment should be incorporated into the design of a building. When someone is in a building, a person should be aware of "what time it is, or where the sun is ... which way or how strongly ... the wind is blowing ... or if the leaves of the palm fronds are rustling now, or if the sky is cloudy or clear ... whether the stars are bright," he wrote.

"Abben was a fascinating man with a tremendous number of interests, an adventurer who traveled around the world," Freedman said. "He went to every seminar they put on here" on a vast range of topics, he added.

He was a member of the Honolulu Skal Club for those of Danish ancestry.

Abben is also survived by another daughter, Yin Abben of Copenhagen.