[ A WALKING TOUR ]
HECO building followed
Spanish trend
They weren't kidding around with Mediterranean architecture in Honolulu's public buildings during the 1920s. After the prime example of the Federal Post Office, Custom House and Court House in 1922, the YMCA, the YWCA and Honolulu Hale were quickly designed and built, as well as the overlooked Hale Auhau, a Works Progress Administration structure completed in 1939 and currently the home of the Attorney General's offices.
Rounding out the Downtown half-dozen is the Hawaiian Electric building, completed in 1927. HECO contracted with New York architects York & Sawyer, the same team who designed the post office, to create a similar building but lofted in a more vertical plane. Local architects Emory & Webb were in charge of construction.
Created in an era when Honolulu was slower-paced, the building includes friendly details like built-in benches for weary pedestrians, horse hitching racks and coolly arched portico entrances on the King and Richards streets sides. Old pictures show a kind of bell-tower/gazebo/cupola structure on the makai roof that is now hard to spot.
The roof is low-rise and thoroughly tiled with glassy barrel-mission tiles.
York & Sawyer reached back into Spanish history for the decorative column supports and half-stilted arched windows -- the style is reminiscent of early 1800s designs by Spanish architects Churriguera and Ribera.
Bounded by the convergence of King and Merchant streets, the building is trapezoidal in plan, with the point of the pizza slice becoming the business entrance on Richards. The building is four stories tall, of reinforced concrete with steel framing. The cost, high for the time, was $750,000.
The ground floor is actually a grand story and half in height with column supports for the vaulted ceiling, decorated by J. Rosenstein.
The Richards Street portico ceiling paintings are by Julian Jarnsey.
The wide end of the building -- the crust side of the pizza slice -- sports a covered through-structure hallway. Here were stairs leading to Hawaiian Electric administration offices, and there are some small shops in the arcade.
Hawaiian Electric Building
Opened: 1927 Architect: York & Sawyer, with Emory & Webb Style: Spanish Address: 900 Richards St. National Register: 1978 Hawaii Register: No
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King Street was a major thoroughfare for cars and pedestrians in the 1940s, and the HECO building was a major landmark even then.
The Hawaiian Electric Building was designed by the same team responsible for the federal post office.
Old photos show a bell tower/ cupola structure that is now hard to spot.
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Quicktime VR Panorama
Click on pictures to view panaromas
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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.
See Holoholo Honolulu for past articles.
