[ A Walking Tour ]

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C. Brewer Building
is like home

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Constructed toward the end of Honolulu's classic architecture phase of the 1920s, the C. Brewer Building was the last of the "Big Five" office buildings to be designed. It's also the smallest and most modest, and has survived almost unchanged to the present day.

Architect Hardie Phillips, of the New York firm of Mayer, Murray and Phillips, used a variety of Spanish and Mediterranean influences and yet came up with a comfortable pastiche local architects agree should be called "Hawaiian Regional." Phillips had worked with Bertram Goddhue on the Honolulu Academy of Arts building, and it's easy to see the design links between the two comfortable, irregular and mansion-like structures. When it was completed, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin called it "a home rtaher than a business establishment."

The double-pitched roof is pure Dickey -- on the mainland it's called a "Hawaiian roof" -- and the rough stucco finish, deeply recessed windows, wrought-iron railings with decorative motifs, garden space and interior two-story rotunda are ideal for cool comfort in a hot climate.

The light fixtures are in the shape of sugar cubes to remind visitors of C. Brewer's core business at the time. The garden at one time held 48 varieties of trees.

Mayer, Murray and Phillips sent Harry S. Bent to supervise construction of the C. Brewer building, and when it was completed, Bent settled here and became the Honolulu City and Country Parks architect.

C. Brewer Building

Opened:
1930

Architect:
Hardie Phillips

Style:
Hawaiian Regional

Address:
827 Fort Street Mall

National Register:
1980 #80001272

Hawaii Register:
1979

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BURL BURLINGAME / BBURLINGAME@STARBULLETIN.COM The C. Brewer Building has Spanish and Mediterranean influences yet is comfortably called "Hawaiian Regional" by local architects.

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BURL BURLINGAME / BBURLINGAME@STARBULLETIN.COM

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Quicktime VR Panorama
Click on pictures to view panaromas

BURL BURLINGAME / BBURLINGAME@STARBULLETIN.COM

BURL BURLINGAME / BBURLINGAME@STARBULLETIN.COM

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Every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin Travel section, rediscover the charms of old Hawaii through a tour created by the Honolulu Historic Trail Committee and Historic Hawai'i Foundation and supported by the city's Office of Economic Development. The yearlong project commemorates Honolulu's bicentennial.

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See Honolulu City Highlights

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Various Honolulu historical organizations have clamored for years to have some sort of survey created of downtown Honolulu's historical sites. The mayor's Office of Economic Development stepped in last year to create order, and 50 locations were chosen as representative of Honolulu's history.

There is, of course, far more history in Honolulu's streets than indicated here, but these sites give the high points and can be visited on a walking tour lasting about three hours.

To commemorate Honolulu's bicentennial, the Star-Bulletin kicks off "Holoholo Honolulu" today, a year-long project to examine these historic properties. For the next 50 Sundays in the Travel section, stories and photographs will illuminate these sites.

But that's just the tip of the architectural iceberg. Viewers can step right into these locations via the magic of QuickTime Virtual Reality, a computer process that allows visitors from around the world to feel as if they're standing right there on the street.

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WE'RE ALSO looking for old photographs of these sites to scan for public use. If you have anything, let us know:

Write to:
Holoholo
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
7-210 Waterfront Plaza
500 Ala Moana
Honolulu, HI 96813.

E-mail:
bburlingame@starbulletin.com