DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Renovation has finally begun on Bishop Museum's Hawaiian Hall as all of the displays -- except for the life-size sperm whale display -- were stored away and crews started their work. The skylight was back in operation yesterday.

Back to life

Bishop Museum begins a massive renovation to its Hawaiian Hall that is expected to take two years

For the first time in decades, the interior of Bishop Museum's Hawaiian Hall is illuminated as it was designed to be -- with sunlight falling through a massive decorative skylight in the ceiling.

But the exhibits are gone, packed away for safekeeping. All that is left is a dusty and sagging life-size whale swinging from the rafters. Renovations begin Monday and are expected to take at least two years to complete.

This week, restoration carpenters removed the covering over the original skylight, placed in the 1960s when electricity was retrofitted to the structure.

"Hawaiian Hall has served Hawaii and visitors for all our years -- more than 100 years -- and it's time to bring it back to life," said Betty Lou Kam, the museum's vice president for cultural resources.

Built by Charles Reed Bishop between 1898 and 1903 on the original campus of Kamehameha Schools, Hawaiian Hall was a grand Victorian gallery designed to preserve and showcase Hawaiian artifacts collected by Princess Bernice Pauahi, Bishop's wife.

"It was cutting-edge a century ago," Kam said. "It had all-natural lighting and ventilation, and no electricity. Over the years there have been attempts at rejuvenation, so it's time to do it."

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM In Bishop Museum's Hawaiian Hall yesterday, contractors Max Nazareno, left, Richard Lee, David Willis and Dennis Koki discussed some of the work that will be done to the Victorian-era hall.

"We have a few million left to raise," said Kam, adding that the restoration and stabilization include the adjacent Polynesian Hall.

Part of the hall's charm are the Victorian-era display cases made of koa, custom-made with special locks and rudimentary climate controls, at a cost that nearly matched that of the building itself.

"We'll be spending a lot of time in the next two years redesigning all of the exhibits in a way that reflects contemporary issues," Kam said.

The restoration is overseen by Ralph Applebaum Associates in New York, Mason Architects of Honolulu and Heath Construction Services.

"It's a privilege to work on that building -- it's special," said architect Glenn Mason, a specialist in historic preservation. Of major preservation jobs in Hawaii, only Iolani Palace and Doris Duke's Shangri La approach the scope of effort and cost.

"Actually, it's one of the most intact Victorian museums in the United States, and celebrated because of that," Mason said. "It's rare and wonderful. The museum has taken the right course in preserving the museum as if it were an artifact itself, and not gutting it."

Designed by master architect CW Dickey, the museum was the first building in the islands built of cut basalt stone, and praised at the time as "one of the noblest buildings of Honolulu." It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.