 Think Tech Hawaii. Civil engagement lives here. Aloha and welcome to another episode of Human Humane Architecture. This week I'm going to be hosting. My name is Graham Hart. I'm an architect here in Honolulu. And today my guest is Sid Snyder, who is the former partner of Vladimir Asipov. Their firm was Asipov Snyder Architects and he started in 1957. So today we're going to be going through a bit of Sid's work. And then we'll also be talking a bit about the work that he did at Asipov's office. And then we'll go into more detail about Sid's home. So thanks for joining us. And Sid, thank you for joining me today. Thank you. So if we can actually go to the first slide. Actually the next one. So this is kind of where Sid starts here. If you want to jump in. These are the first two firms that Sid worked at here in Honolulu. But where did you originally move here from? We'll start there. I went to school and grew up in Seattle, Washington. Came here right out of school. I was like 56-ish? 57? Yes. Free statehood. Yeah, that good mid-century era of architecture. And so the first office. Who wound up actually bringing you here? This is an interesting story. I was recruited by Frank Haynes from a firm then known as Lemone Freeth Haynes and Jones. I stayed there a short time. Later on became Architects Hawaii, which is still around today. Yes, correct. Pretty big firm here. So you're there for about six months or something? Maybe less. Maybe less. It's right out of school. And then afterwards you went to go apply at another office? Well, there's a lot of work in the post-war era. And not too many architects are qualified people. That's why Mr. Haynes recruited people to come. So I went to work with Osipov and he had a lot of work of different types. He did a lot of different types of work. By different, I mean hospitals, schools, religious, commercial buildings, residential. And always a change. Always something new and different. A little bit of everything. Yes. And so you started there in 57. What year did you later become Osipov's partner? Well, that was many years later. We became an associate after four or five years and that was for quite a while. But I think it was at the late 70s that we were made more of a higher level co-owners. And it was planned with Osipov wanting to exit ownership and things. Although he worked in the firm the rest of his life until he was 91 years old. Architects never retire. We just slow down, I guess. Apparently. That's the rumor. Okay, so if we can go to the next slide. So this was one of the first projects that you were on? Well, it was being built when I arrived in the Osipov's office. It was a very tall building at 12 floors in Waikiki, actually in Diamond Head. What's now known as the Gold Coast. Right. And it was unique in that it was a co-op building in which the ceilings were lowered from the concrete slab above. And therefore you could move utilities around including plumbing. And so people could have their own floor plan. And it was a big feature of the developer to allow that to happen. So as a result, the man in our office was busy constantly with all these different sets of plans. Yeah. So I think there was something like certainly 35 to 40 different plans and different owners. Everyone's unit was completely different. Yeah, they were all different. Wow. So this is Diamond Head Towers, Diamond Head Apartments on the Gold Coast there. And so that's a picture of it on the left there. And then in the middle is actually from one of our Dokomomo Tours maybe a year ago. And so it gave a lovely tour of the outside of the apartment. So if we go to the next slide, this apartment building is called Coral Strand Apartments. And it's right next door. And so Sid, you helped out more on this one? I was actually involved in this one. So I guess you could say the lead designer of it. And it was the same developer, but smaller, more modest and more standardized built apartments. So everything was the way it was except for the two floors of the penthouse. So it was an interesting job and took a while to get it built and came out okay I think. Yeah, I think it's pretty incredible. And I visited it actually just recently this past weekend to look a little bit more closely at it. And it's got some great details with the board form, the concrete and a couple other things that, you know, make it really simple and humble in its appearance. But I think that that kind of came through in a lot of awesome tough work and came through in some of your other projects as well. I think so. And the interesting thing about both buildings, the Diamond Head Apartments and the Coral Strand, was that we were not dependent on air conditioning. And so the buildings were, the apartments themselves were built so that there was no provision for air conditioning particularly. And they're largely that same way today I understand. I'm sure individually people have added room air conditioning to it. But that was part of being in Hawaii was to have the natural ventilation. And of course these are very desirable because they're both directly on the ocean. Right on the ocean. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, if we go to the next slide. So this kind of brings us, that was 57, 58, 61 maybe. And then what year is this? This is when you first bought your property up on Ihupua Place. Well, I'd been here about five years, gotten married, had no children. So my wife and I would look at houses, something that we're just renters. And so we looked and looked. And one time we came aware of a new subdivision which ended up being Wailaiki Ridge View Lots. Yeah, a whole name. And they had great views. There was a short ride up the hill. And I think the property we ended up with was 300 feet elevation. And so it was pretty exciting. And so it was developed by a Bishop of State where they put in all the improvements, meaning the utilities and the roadway and so forth. So you leased it. So it turned out that the leases were for this particular lot that I ended up with were $6,000. And so it didn't have 6,000 but had a couple thousand put together. So we proceeded to buy it, not knowing how we were going to make the next move, which obviously was build something. So that was 1962. And my wife, which she did almost immediately was get pregnant. And so now we're down to one income. So moving right along. So we had it for actually seven years before we finally built a house. But I must say that to their credit, the leasehold system worked in our case and allowed us to get the tow hold, which became happily fee simple in a different era in the late 1980s. And so that changed the equation a whole lot. And we had the extreme excitement and thrill of we were going to build our own house. And we would somehow get it built. And we would have the pleasure of a lifetime, you might say, being spent in a house, which is a great thing that I recommend to one and all who care about things like that. So this picture here is of the view. And it's changed a bit since you first bought it when you were 30. Well, the nearby houses weren't there yet when we first saw it because that was a ridge that had not been developed. And Wileyke was just next door to it. So that was our view and it was very special. We don't live in this house anymore. We sold it three years ago. But I must say I do miss the view. So if we go to the next slide. So this is kind of just a Google view of the train and the site. And if you can just kind of walk us through some of the site conditions that you had to deal with. Once was empty lot. Sure. The lot was steep. And given the idea that there's a cul-de-sac in the house that we're speaking of is the one with the five red roofs with a white one in between grouped around a courtyard. So the drop from this cul-de-sac down to the low corner on your right, 60 feet. So that became obviously interesting how to deal with and maximize the benefit of 60 feet but deal with the benefit at the same time. Harder to build on such a steep site. More expensive too. More expensive. Yeah. So the wind came from the upper right-hand corner which was the normal trade wind. And we had several thoughts about it. But one thing we'd lived in a similar situation in McKinkey Heights where the wind came basically from the direction of the view. And so that means that it's in the long run not pleasant to have the wind in your face like that. So you need to somehow get the view at the same time enjoy the place. And so that led to if we would park the car at the street at the cul-de-sac and not have a driveway into the property but drive directly into the garage we'd have enough room to be flat and have a courtyard. Because if you have a courtyard that's flat now you can go out and do things in the courtyard, sit around, have a chair, have a table, play a game in a situation where it's comfortable whereas the hillside is hard to do any of those things in. And that was precious to get. And it's maybe I suppose to save this for the end of our little talk here today. It was my favorite room of the house which was not a room at all. Let's hold on for a little bit then and take a quick little break. And then we'll come back and we'll talk about all the different layouts and all the different rooms inside the house. Welcome back to Human Humane Architecture. I'm the guest house this week, Graham Hart. And with me is Sid Snyder and we're going over some of his work and the house that he designed for himself. So we just went through the site and some of his early career and now we're going to go through the layout and all the rooms. So right here we have the floor plan kind of superimposed on top of the site plan that we were just looking at. And I think what might be best is actually just to go room by room and kind of walk through the house. Fine. Sounds good. Sounds great. Okay, so here we are at the top where Sid was just talking about pulling up into the cul-de-sac and driving right onto the garage. We had a three car garage because it looked better than a two car garage. It was less of a box. We didn't have three cars but it worked out and it helped the courtyard. Yeah, so then as we move down to the next slide. So this is kind of the picture on the left is walking down the stairs on the side of the garage, garage in the middle. And then the image on the right is actually where the front door is. Yeah, the image on the right doesn't show well but there's a door there that I would like to just mention came from a house on Diamond Head that was going to be destroyed and it was a one of a pair of garden gates in that house. And it was the same architect that designed the Academy of Arts. None knows the humble is him of art. We salvaged it. Okay, next slide. So then as soon as you walk through that doorway you come into this space which is this kind of this corridor which is open on one side of the courtyard and has this great little raised platform in between the courtyard and the hallway. Which I think of as a great thing for Hawaii because you have this bench to sit down at and take off your shoes. But I think it's a bit more complex than that. A little more complex than that. Well, we needed to do it for the topography which was extreme but very carefully maneuvered. The courtyard never overflowed into the house over that wall and I'm very grateful for that. It's been flood. Okay, next slide. So this is a couple more views of the courtyard itself and looking back from the courtyard through the house. As you see the doors folded up for 100% view. We had to close them at night because there's no screens as you'll see. One thing about when you fold doors they don't accommodate the screens. So that was fine. We didn't have any particular bug problem other than the usual friendly neighbors. Roaches, so forth. Alright, next slide. From the courtyard there's this lanai space that kind of opens out to it. No walls, no windows or doors on this side of the room. Great outdoor space for Hawaii. The lanai was reached on the right that was next to the living room. And the door on the left we went directly into the kitchen. So the plan was to have a table which you don't see there but there was a table on the left hand side where we ate most of the time. And deliberately kept any eating except for one stool at a counter in the kitchen. So we really were outside in that lanai and just about every kind of weather. Great space. The next slide. So this is the family room. No, no, this is the deck as you called it. So right off the entryway. And I want you to talk a little bit quickly about the screen wall here. You can. Well the screen are simply roof tile cut in half. So they're only half as long. So they're about four inches from to back. And they're in there stacked in that kind of honeycomb pattern with a little bit of mastic in there to hold them in place just in case. And interestingly enough we found that flies had no interest coming through this. I didn't need a bug screen. So the next slide. So this space is then right off of that other deck space that we're just looking at. And this one has got these great picture view windows right onto the ocean and the exposed CMU and then sill vents underneath all of these great windows to modulate all the wind flow. But maybe you could talk real briefly about the CMU here and its significance. The CMU is a beach or sandy coral colored block. And on the outside it would leak a lot if you didn't do something about it. So the outside has thinly plastered cement plaster with a certain amount of beach sand in added to the face of the plaster to give it color. And on that was applied a clear sealer. Oh maybe every 10 years. And that pretty much did the job so we did not have water leaking through into the room. On the inside it's a different story because now we're not worried about water coming from the inside. So what we did was to get rid of the stigma block was to make the grout or the mortar as you see between the blocks the same color as the block. So it has some white cement in there with beach sand. And then after that was all done it was sandblasted which removed the cement entirely and got into the more of the beach coral tones. And that was it. We did seal it but it was never painted or sealed or worked after that. Very low maintenance, honest material. Quite low. The only thing to do with it was to vacuum occasionally. It had miniature pukas in it you might say. The next slide. So this is the dining room space which is kind of a different scale to it a little bit lower and everything. Actually we could just maybe jump ahead to the kitchen if that works. So the next slide after that. So this is one of the spaces that you finished off last in the house you told me. A bit more complexity with all the cabinets and all the different details that you wanted to bring in there. As you see it's a fairly moderate to small size kitchen. The island saves the day. The wood was treated with some lime and then a clear finish such as polyurethane. But I would like to point out that when you're standing at the sink you're looking out directly into that view on their left. And when you're at the island you're never looking into a wall. You're looking across the room or even outside towards a little needle and eye. And that seemed to be good for the cook. Next slide. So this is kind of set up as an office now but originally it was just the guest bedroom. I think it has some great details to it and different kind of material choices that you had talked about. The redwood here you didn't stain or anything it was just kind of left natural. It was the one room that didn't get bleached on the redwood and he finished at it. By the time we got to it it was the last room in the house. And we'd gone to fall in love with the redwood the way it was and we liked it very much. The picture on your left I should tell you is the Mr. Asipov's desk. And the U-shaped furniture and all that that came out of his office when he retired. And that it fit this room very well. So my wife liked it and used it as her office. Next slide. So this is the master bedroom which is off of the kind of the deck there on the entryway. Beautiful view out there and then the sill windows and events and everything with the roof tiles there. But maybe we jump to the next slide and talk a little bit about the master bathroom which is kind of interesting. With all of its different details that you have including the shower that opens out to a walkway. Yes the shower had the view and there was a curtain on it. And we could open the shower door and go outside and keep the windows washed. That was true of this whole side of the house. Okay well we've only got a couple of minutes left. So maybe we can jump actually then to the last slide. Okay so this is the view from the outside here and this kind of gives you a better idea of the massing of the house. And I wanted to say a couple of things that you know one thing that the house is actually still open for sale. Different owners now but still a great masterpiece that's you know kind of being kept here. And so it's it if you have some closing thoughts. Well I just hope it's inspired some of you to think in terms of having your own house someday. It's very few things that we have anymore that are custom even custom clothing is pretty rare. Sure. Sure is for me you know. Yeah. And so here's one thing that affects your life greatly to have to have your very own house somewhere. It's difficult sometimes but I urge you to give it a shot if you can. I want to just mention a couple things about where we're going in architecture on Lulu in particular. And that we are building tall buildings two hundred three hundred four hundred a month feet high. And these are all over town and they're very visible from not just when you're standing next to the building but miles away is these towers going to be there. They're going to be there a very long time I suspect maybe a hundred years or two hundred years. They will they're built very strong. So we're going to see them so they need the extra care and extra thought to go into for a long term benefit to the city and to the people who are going to occupy the houses. And so we've started out trying to do things that are with certain planning elements but I see them disappearing sometimes because the developer wants to make it more apartments. And so for political reasons perhaps we say we sell settle for lower rent for some people to occupy these homes or buy them at a better price. But I think that we need to look at the long term benefits and hear from all of us who care about these things. All right well said I'd like to thank you again for joining me today and I hope everyone enjoyed the show and we look forward to kind of more talk about architecture. Thank you Graham. Where we're going. Thank you. Thank you Sid. Bye bye. Bye.