 One and welcome to Think Tech Hawai'i's Dokomomo Hawai'i show. I am the host for this week, Dysoto Brown and the historian of vision. And we have two guests today from Dokomomo who we're going to be talking about a specific subject that they have worked. And can I ask each of you to introduce yourselves and say where you work? Sure. I'm Allison Chu with Dokomomo Hawai'i. And I am Alyssa Carson with Dokomomo Hawai'i. And where do you also work in addition to your work at Dokomomo? So I am an architectural historian with Fung Associates. And I am an architect also with Fung Associates. And Dokomomo for those who are not familiar with it is an organization, it's an international organization that is focused on mid-century architecture. I was told the time period is approximately 1930 to 1980 and to the study of it and the preservation of it and the dissemination of information about it. So what are we talking about today specifically? Would you like to go ahead? Okay. Today we are talking about mixed culture, mixed modern, mixed modern, I guess Asian architecture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think the thing to bring up that's relevant for this is that here in Hawai'i we have a mix of different cultures. Primarily that came about in the 19th and 20th centuries because of the sugar industry. So lots of us who live here now have ancestors who came here to work primarily in the sugar industry. But these were people mostly from Asia but there were some European immigrants as well. So that became what we have today in terms of a very mixed culture. And what we're going to look at is how that mixed cultural mix was shown in architecture and buildings of the time period. So let's go to our first slide. And tell us what this is. So this is the Honolulu Museum of Art. And this was built in 1927 by Bertram Goodhue. And we actually started this, wanted to start this presentation off with this photo because this kind of, to us, kind of started this multicultural, architectural, the history of it. And it's because of, we think it's because of Anna Rice Cook who was a philanthropist and she was from a prominent missionary family and an avid art collector and she just loved Eastern Asian art. And so she demolished her residence to build this building and she had this really big vision and concept to kind of bring the Eastern and Western cultures into this building. So if you can go to the next slide, you can see within the building we have a Chinese courtyard and a Spanish courtyard that kind of represents bringing these kind of these two ethnic cultures together in one. Correct. And I think we can also point out too that those are the wings of the museum that have the Asian art as well as the Western or the European art. So the courtyard eats courtyard and they face each other across a central courtyard you might say. And those are again physical delineations of those two different collections, but they're all together in one building. And one of the things that we were talking about before the show, which I was bringing up was that not only were, not only do we see these elements brought into architecture but we also see them in the materials that people were putting in their homes and it wasn't just ethnically Japanese or Chinese people who were either using these things, having elements of these architectural elements or just those pieces of our homes. So it had spread even in the early 1900s, late 1800s, to people who were not of those cultures. Yes. Right. Right. Okay. Let's keep going. Yes. Next slide. So because Anne Rice Cook demolished her home, she had to build a new home. So she hired Charles Dickey and Hartwood to build her new home, which is now the Spalding House, which is what you see, and is built in 1925. And this also, because she really liked Eastern Asian art, she really pushed Charles Dickey and Hartwood to incorporate a lot of this Asian-inspired details into her home. So as you can see, you can see there's a lot of Asian details with the columns and the screens. And if you can go to the next slide, you can see in the railings and the screen doors. So it's throughout her whole entire residence. And something else we talked about, which I think you can see in the picture on the left, there are elements of Chinese calligraphy that come up in not only sometimes in wrought iron railings, but also in wooden screens that sometimes are over windows. And we see this here in this home, but you can find these elements in other homes and other businesses during the time period that we're talking about too. And that's one of the exciting and fun things that we talked about a lot because I kept thinking of different examples of these things that we're talking about. Yes. Right. Okay. Next slide, please. And then while Charles Dickey and Hartwood was designing Anna Rice Cook's residence, they were also hired to design the Alexander and Baldwin building, which is built in 1929. This reflects the sugar industry, which Alexander and Baldwin was founded upon. So there is a lot of ties with the Chinese community. You can see a lot of Chinese elements that influence the design of this building. And then if you can go to the next slide, you can see the water buffalo heads. And then, well, we don't have the picture here. But on the columns at the entrance, there's like the long life symbols and a lot of other Asian details throughout the building's exterior. And let me also point out that at the time this building was built, there still were water buffaloes used living here in the Hawaiian islands who were plowing rice fields. So this was not a totally exotic symbol at the time because there still were the animals themselves in use, brought, of course, from Asia. I don't think we have any left anymore, but for a time they were still quite common. Well, and then one of the other things that we had talked about with the plantation labor, right, at that time period was the Chinese and Japanese were some of the earlier sets of immigrants that had come over to help build the plantation, I guess, to, well, to work in the plantations. And then later there were Korean and Filipinos and this constant stream of new immigration happening. And so all of that eventually has an influence in Hawaii's architecture. Oh, yeah. And it's community. Absolutely. And foods. And food. And music. And no, really. And that is why what we're talking about, again, is architecture. But the elements are all there for a whole part of our entire existence here. Exactly. So after Alexander and Baldwin's building was built, Charles Dickey and Hartwood split. And Dickey took on a bunch of different architects who actually probably helped broaden the design of incorporating Asian design details in their architecture. So we're talking about Roy Kelly, James Sims, Kenji Onandera, Vladimir Asipov, and Kenneth Roig. And that's just a few that Dickey took on. And they're all from this time period, too. We're all talking about the modernist time period in the mid-century. Century, correct. Right. So then if you can go to the next slide. So then after that, Dickey passed away in 1942. And so we have a new generation of architects. And two of the most prolific ones with Asian design influence was Hartwood and Hego Fuccino. So Hartwood designed the one on the left and Hego Fuccino designed the building on the right. And they're both Christian churches, however. Yes. Yes. So they have Asian elements, but they're actually Christian. Yes. Which is the whole point. Yes. Right. Okay. Can you go to the next slide, please? And then so at the same time, Hawaii is going through statehood. And then we have right here is the East-West Center. And in 1940s, 50s, Greg Sinclair, which was the president of the University of Hawaii in Manoa, he envisioned Manoa as a Pacific crossroads and had this vision of designing this center for, I guess, for the conferences. Yes. Thank you. And also for students to interact as well from those other countries, too. Exactly. So this is kind of why we have the East-West Center at Manoa. And this was designed by I.M. Pei in 1963. And the landscape architect was Kenzo Ogata. And I think what's so great about this picture that you selected is that it really showcases the sort of stature that the architecture was going for at this time to really represent the sort of the stateliness and the prestige of government in this combination of the East-West influence. And if you can go to the next slide, please. And then so this is Kennedy Theater across the road from the East-West Center, also designed by I.M. Pei using the same type of architectural details. And then if you can go to the next slide. So in addition to the government architecture that was being built, you know, we see other influences coming in with the 1961 Wong and Wong Taiwanese consulate building, which is on the Polly. And you can see the upturned roof, concrete roof forms. And they have a very distinct Asian element. You can kind of see on the right side of this image, there's a moon gate. There's the red detailing. And it's very Asian and very distinct and iconic. Yeah, and very modern too. Very modern. Because it's got this swoopy, kooky, canopy thing that was very popular at that time. Very unique. Oh, I want to, yes, let's go to the next picture because this is, I like this one. Pardon me for bumping into you, but yeah. So this one is really unique. We both really love this image. And this particular little house that we stumbled upon in Kaimuki, it's a 19, we're guessing 1960s or so, you know, private residential home. And it's just on this lovely residential street. And we happen to see that it had a moon gate with an inset doorway. It's got these geometric side windows and other structural and Japanese railing elements on the side, which you can't see in this photo, but we really just loved it. We just found this so charming. Actually when I was talking to my dad about it, he said when he grew up, he remembered the moon gate and some of the trims being red at one time. Yeah. We had that discussion. Yes. And speaking of which, well, let's go to the next picture because that's exactly what was going on with this apartment building, our co-op, excuse me. Yes. Tell us more. So this was built in 1956 and designed by a gentleman named Herbert Beyer. And this was the first co-op building in Hawaii. So Hawaii was actually the first state to allow condominiums. And you mentioned De Soto that the railings here, which are turquoise, were actually painted red when the building was first built. That's the way I remember it. And that's like what we just said. And with the Taiwanese consulates, you pointed out the columns are red. That would be in keeping with architecture of both China and Japan, particularly for religious architecture, and then royalty, et cetera, that had red detailing in the same way. Okay. Well, let's go to the next picture. And modernist butt with Chinese hands. So this is the 1954 United Chinese Society building in Chinatown. It was designed by Clifford Young. And you can see that it has very streamlined architectural, you know, a structure to it. That's very streamlined. Very modernist and simple in its sort of box, you know, in its box form. And it's got these lovely precast, concrete words on the facade of the building. And a lot of society buildings and social clubs were being built after the war because some of the Asian American groups had been prohibited from gathering during World War II and in the years following that. And so we really see this proliferation of gathering spaces after the war, which included, as you had mentioned, the veterans, the 442nd and 100th Battalion groups. Next picture. And then we have Hongwanji's, which were also proliferating across the island, as well as other churches. And so this is actually the interior of the 1962 Pololo Hongwanji. And it was designed by Robert Katsuyoshi, who was a partner with Hego Fuccino. And we had learned that the Pololo Hongwanji had actually been rebuilt after the war, and Reverend Maury had been interned during World War II. And so after he returned, he was able to rejoin his wife and start rebuilding the community. And so they did so at the Pololo Hongwanji. Okay, next. Well, let's, oh, this is the cool one too, yes. This is the breakers, you said. The breakers, yes, built in 1953 by Edwin Bauer. And this actually, this has some lovely Japanese elements to it. It has that distinct Asian roof line with the wood shingles. And then on the interior, it used to have, I don't think these are still there, but it had shoji dividers on the interior rooms. Right. And I was remembering too, we were talking beforehand, that that was very common place for a number of other hotels locally. Plus, it was considered chic in the United States at that time for modernist homes. And they weren't actually making them like real shoji. They didn't have paper. They were using a translucent or a darker or a plastic upon which the wooden frame would be put. So the effect visually was similar, but it wasn't as fragile as a wooden door is. So it's a shoji door actually. Right. Correct. Okay, next picture. Okay, so next we have the PQE Haught building, which is in Chinatown. And it was designed in 1965. It's actually one of the last overtly Chinese buildings in Chinatown. Right. And you can see the red columns with the golden intertwined dragons. And what we learned from one of our Dokomomo talk stories, which was pretty fascinating, is that the columns with the dragons were actually built and designed to be white. And then they were later painted red and gold. Yeah, to make them show. Well, which is good. Next we've got a modern building. Let's go to that. So yeah, this is one of our sort of dear to our heart buildings. It's the American Savings Bank, originally Liberty Bank, which was Chinese owned. And they have Chinese elements you had mentioned, the calligraphy element used graphically. And so you can see at the bottom of the screen here, we have the symbol, the Chinese symbol. It's sort of simplified here, but it's the Chinese symbol for longevity. And they used to have tile screens. And the big coins at the counter. That's also, yes. That's very good, too. Well, it's a bank, and it's very appropriate. Right. And the Chinese coins themselves are graphically interesting. There we go. OK, and this one, by the way, I've always thought was very cool because it predates the Hawaii State Capitol, but it looks very similar to it, a smaller version of it. OK, next. And this is kind of interestingly, well, this is the Rainbow Bazaar at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel. And if I may go ahead and say it incorporates a lot of exotic elements. This is put together for the experience of tourists coming here and saying, oh, what a cool exotic place this is. But it's cultural appropriation. It's something that we probably wouldn't do today. In other words, to just take things from other cultures and put them all together as entertainment. Right. And you had said that this is probably going to be demolished. Yes, that we've recently got word that this will probably be demolished soon. And so this is, I mean, I guess this is our talk is to kind of exemplify some of our existing architecture as well as some of the stuff that we are slowly losing. Yes. And not so slowly sometimes. And not so slowly, yes. Yeah, and we were also talking about some other buildings that we've already lost that were very beautiful that fit into this Asian amalgamation that we were talking about. Well, we've got just a few more things to do before we come to the close. And let's go to our next slide because this is something that you both worked on, correct? Actually, this. No, OK, never mind. We've actually learned a lot from this, but this was done before our time. Oh, I didn't realize it was that old. OK. So a lot of these buildings that we've been talking about from the mid-century era were researched and collected in a context study done by our office in 2012. And so you can read all about it online. You can download the report. This report. At our website, fanghawaii.com. And a lot of the buildings that we've been discussing that are also in this report will be showcased at the symposium. Right, next slide. This is exciting. There's going to be a Dokomomo convention here. Yes, so we're going to have, we're going to actually, our chapter, Dokomomo US White Chapter, is hosting the Dokomomo National Symposium in September, December, as you can see, September 25th to the 28th. It'll be a three-day with one extra special day convention. And so we hope that everyone can join us. Boy, I'm going to be there. And I'm going to do a talk, too. And we will be, too. Oh, boy, I really didn't know that. Well, OK, that's coming up. And I am very excited about that. That's September of this year, 2019. And let's go to the next slide to hype some of the people who are involved. Yes. So these are the different sponsors for the upcoming symposium. And of course, we're all grateful that they are doing so, so that we can be there to tell people about stuff. And our next slide is also some of the other partners, too. We actually have so many sponsors right now that we have two slides for them. Hurrah! And if anybody else wants to be a sponsor, they are more than willing, or we're more than willing to. Of course. You'll take money. Take money. That's right. OK, well, that brings us to the end of this show. And I told you it would go quickly. And it did go very quickly today. It went very quickly. It did. Thank you both for being here. Thank you, Soto. Thank you, Soto. And this is the end of our Doko Momo show for this week. We've got an upcoming schedule of more Doko Momo shows intermingled with human-humane architecture shows. I'm going to be doing a lot of them, so I'll be here. We'll look forward to it. Thank you so much. And thank you all, everybody, for watching. And we hope to see you again next time. Until then.