 Hello, everyone, and welcome to Think Tech Hawaii's Dokomomo Hawaii Show, which we are talking about architecture of the mid-century, of the mid-century period of the 20th century. Dokomomo is an organization, an international organization that preserves, works on, and focuses on this period of architecture. And today we've got a wonderful program with our guest, and would you introduce yourself please? And what's your, what would you do? Well, I'm a retired architect that I'm on the board of Dokomomo, U.S. Hawaii, the Hawaii Chapter of Dokomomo, and I also spend a lot of my time helping out at Historic Hawaii Foundation. Yeah. And I've got one more thing that is coming up, is I've been asked to be a member of the board for the John Sherlock Foundation, so. Excellent, and that's going to be relevant for what we're talking about. On today's program. So, what we're going to be talking about is this particular time period in the mid-century, we saw a lot of ceramic public art, and those range from very small pieces to very large pieces, and we're going to be covering a variety of things in this particular program. Great. So, let's get started with our first slide, which you have been seeing behind us, and there's our first slide. This is Ala Moana Shopping Center, and this is the open space that was between phase one on the left and phase two on the right, so 1959 and 1966. And as you can see in the center of the picture, there is the distant Ala Moana building. This fountain in the foreground was dedicated in 1959. The interior of the water bearing part of the fountain is tiled in a pattern, as you can see, mostly blue tiles, but then there's this tower on the right, and the tower has four ceramic, they're not individual panels. They're different size panels, but each one of the sides of the tower represents a different one of the four major Hawaiian gods in an abstract fashion. Now this has been lost, and this is one of the sad things about this time period. We've lost and continue to lose a great many buildings and architectural treasure. This was demolished probably in the late 1980s when the Ala Moana Center was redeveloping this area, but the good news is that as we continue the program, you're going to see things that were not lost but that have been preserved. Next slide. And now we go to the Kailua Shopping Center. This was constructed in the early to middle 1950. It has been altered, most commercial buildings have so that they've become more updated. But you see three ceramic panels which are on the pillars of the first portion of that particular shopping center. They are still standing today. If you look at the black and white picture, that would be in the part that's on the left. Part that's on the right and closer to us in that black and white picture is the Time Supermarket which also has ceramic panels on it. And you'll see that there are fish motifs. This is very popular in the 50s because fish were very easily abstracted and used for this type of commercial art that was popular at the time. Next picture. Here is the music building at the University of Hawaii. And this is a planter. Now the thing that I want to point out is ceramic tile work requires you to create an overall large design on smaller individual pieces that have to be drawn, that have to be glazed, that have to be fired. Then they have to be assembled into one big picture. So it isn't just that you create it all at once. You have to do it in sections and put them all together. And this is, again, something to point out that even low-cost buildings at this time had this level of artistic integrity and artistic expression in which ceramic pieces were commissioned and created just for them, which is something that we very rarely would see today. It's just too expensive nowadays. Next picture. Now, we come to Puole Circle. And those of us in the Doku Momo period are very fond of this particular little enclave of not high end but reasonably priced small apartment buildings that are just made of concrete and cement. They're two-story walk-up. And they are, however, decorated. Now, this is particularly interesting. The diamond head surf, first of all, the diamond pattern that you see there plays off of the name of the building, diamond head surf. But if you also look carefully, you see that the cement blocks that make up the wall have a pattern cut into them that is incised or debossed, if you will. And if that is put together, if the blocks are put together in the right way, they will create diamond pattern. So these deboss diamond open spaces are where the tiles fit in. And you'll also see for the name diamond head surf in the bigger sign on the lower left, those hexagonal panels are made, tiles are made specifically to fit within the diamond. So it leaves a white empty diamond space there as well. Next picture. Also at Poulet Circle is this. This is the diamond head gardens. And one whole wall of the exterior of this small building is covered by these small rectangular or small square tiles normally that would have been used for bathrooms. But it's got this vertical striped pattern. But also look at the words diamond head gardens and see how all of the enclosed spaces of the letters have a color inside them. And the D's of each of those three words are lined up in a line. Well, if you look in the lower left corner of this where the sign is, you'll see those three D patterns have been repeated in an individual tile that's been turned on its side. Again, this is really clever. And it's really artistic and it's really interesting to pay attention to, particularly for a low-cost building. Next picture. Also diamond head gardens has this one panel which I'm really pleased about as a history-minded person because it says right on the building who designed it and when it was built. So this is the name of the architectural firm, which is LeMond, Freeth, Haynes, and Jones. And it was done in 1959. And I used to mystically pronounce that first name as Lemon. And Frank Haynes himself informed me, no, it's LeMond. I can say it correctly. Next picture. Now another low-cost apartment complex is located on Dade Street. And there's more than one building, but one of the complexes or one of the groups of buildings is called La'au Gardens. That's because La'au Street is the street that goes behind where this is located. And again, you see this abstract tiles are kind of scattered around on the exteriors of the walls of this building. They fit into the grid of the concrete or cement blocks that the building is made up of that makes up those walls. And these tiles, some of them are purely abstract. Some of them are a little more figural. But many of them are three-dimensionals. So if you look at the picture in the lower right corner here, you can see those actually have elements that stick out. Next picture. And here we see, again, that tile, the sign at the top is ceramic that says La'au Gardens in 2609. And then below that, we see a scattering of different piles, different piles that can be found on the exteriors of these buildings, some of which, again, are abstract, but some of which look like people. And they are particularly influenced by Hawaiian petroglyphs, which means that somebody actually took the time to research this and discover what petroglyphs look like. And if you also look carefully amongst the little man figures, there is a surfboard. Well, let me see if I can point to this. There's a surfboard down there, no, right, down there. And there's a turtle or a honu right where my hand is. And then there's also in the panel in the center, on the left, next to the two figures, that is a sail, a Hawaiian canoe sail. So again, how many took time to put this together? Next picture. So now we're going to go to the part that you're going to talk about starting with this. Bank of Hawaii. This is Bank of Hawaii in Kapahulu. And this is a building that was completed in 1961. And it represented on Kapahulu that the Bank of America was doing a prominent... Bank of Hawaii. Excuse me. Not Bank of Hawaii. Bank of Hawaii. Thank you. And not only, I believe this was done by Wembley's office. That's likely. One of the things that was important to them was to commission a significant work of art that would be installed and be a highlight when you're in waiting to see a cashier. So on the next image, this is the five Enomoto labor murals as they were originally installed above the cashier line at that bank. And the five of them were, they're actually quite large, quite detailed, quite just almost a monumental scale. And when the Bank of Hawaii was decommissioning the building in 2015, they decided that they were not, they were gonna give up the building completely, but at the same time, they didn't want to just lose these murals. So they looked all over, trying to find an organization that could take them. There was very little response on that because obviously you needed a big wall and a very substantial wall. And the bank finally talked to Okonomo of US Hawaii, and we, I have to give Don Hibbert a lot of credit for that, said, we'll take him. And we almost overnight, the bank basically asked, okay, where do you want them? And we found a warehouse, a wonderful organization that had some space in a warehouse in Kakaakoa, and the bank actually paid to take them down and move them over to that warehouse. So that began our process of actually looking for a new home for these incredible murals, but also making sure that they were safe and preserved. So go to the next image. You know, and before we go further with this, to get into some of the specifics, tell us about the artist, John Enomoto. Yes, yes, his first name is Ami Enomoto, and he grew up on the big island, I believe it was, and he is a descendant of Japanese immigrants from Okinawa, and he had a great history at the University of Hawaii. He studied ceramics and is really flourished. He worked with a number of prominent artists like John Trilot, but in this case, he was commissioned on his own to create this set of murals. And this first one is significant in that of the five, this is the one that actually, where he captures the people that lived and worked in the Kapa Hulu area. And you said that's where his studio was as well. It was, it was under where H1 goes over Kapa Hulu, in that area. Yes, yes, at that end. And one of the things that you pointed out, which I find fascinating is that these depictions on this particular panel are actual people and or actual businesses of Kapa Hulu. And when you told me that, then I said, I recognize where some of these are, because I grew up near there. And so I would have been going through this area at the time the bank was built. And in the upper left corner, there's a pet store. You can see the letters PE for a pet store, which was in the Himuro building, which I can remember. Below that is a mailman giving mail to the guy in the pet store. Below that on the far left, you said is the woman Mrs. Himuro, or the woman who ran the, ran the store, the Himuro store in that building. Yes. And the stories that we've heard from people that grew up in the neighborhood is that although she had a candy store and the little kids love to come in, she didn't really like dealing with little kids. And so she's remembered as not being very. Well, actually being hostile to the children, but the children, it was just part of growing up in. Exactly. And so there she is grudgingly serving candy to children. In the center is a guy, a gas station attendant. That's back when you went to a gas station. And so they pumped gas for you. You didn't do it yourself. There were three gas stations in that area, so I'm not sure which one that is. Then there's a doctor. I don't know who he was. Yeah, we didn't, we weren't paid for. Didn't find who he was. Then there's Leonard's Bakery. You can see the R.Y. of the sign that says Bakery. And below that chef is, or a baker, is somebody who worked at Davenroy Cleaners, which is a big dry cleaning establishment there. And then right in the center is John, is Enimoto himself. Yes, in a very auroric fashion. Exactly. You didn't really look like that. No, he didn't, but if you're going to celebrate the people of Capa Hulu, why not make yourself the... Exactly, because he was one. Yeah, and in the very center is a very orange panel with just a couple of objects. And those were items that he made and sold when he wasn't getting commissions like this. And then I was explaining on the bottom, on the lower right side, that was a taxidermist. And I thought maybe that was a store that sold fish, but no, it was a taxidermist. Yeah, yeah, so going to the next slide. This is what it took to move each of the murals. They've been moved and reinstalled out at CLEAR, the Center for Labor Education and Research. It's in the library building out at the West Oahu campus of the University of Hawaii. And the leader, the director of CLEAR, Dr. William Put, has been phenomenal in helping us not only achieve that immense wall where all of these could be installed, but also he helped with organizing the labor unions to contribute to this. You can see just getting one up and installed on the wall was an immense project. Major honor you were taking. Yeah, it was just, Dr. Put and I were standing there watching this and just were holding our breath. Once they got the first one up there, and it was fine, and then we went ahead. So if you go to the next image, this is the five of them. And we were able to install them in the same order that they were in the bank. And what's really great, those windows to the left, those are windows into the CLEAR's archive where there's just a phenomenal history. Dr. Put has preserved the history of labor organizations in Hawaii. So this is totally appropriate for that because these are labor organizations. Yes, and I have to point out, Dr. Put actually, when the bank was looking for someone to receive them, Dr. Put really wanted to be involved in that. He really thought he could only get one of the five, but it was just really incredible how we got the right people, a lot of individual donors, and just an incredible instruction crew that helped us make this all happen. Success story, very good, very good. Okay, next picture. And now we're gonna talk about another part of labor. I was saying that, we were discussing earlier, after World War II, labor unions locally took on, got a great deal more power. And one of the ways they showed that was the dock strike, which was the place in 1949, as you can see in the headline. And if we go to our next picture, after this happened, the labor unions were no longer kind of in hiding. They had a lot more power, and they were able to not only be more active, but instruct their own buildings. And so this is the United Public Workers headquarters building, which is on School Street. And the front of it is adorned with these six huge murals, ceramic murals. And it's a collaboration for these murals between Jean Girillot, who was the artist, and Asami Inamoto actually crafted all of the tiles that make it up, so. Correct. It's just a wonderful collaboration of artists and, well, the two artists. And let's go to the next picture. And there you can see in the lower left corner of the panel on the far left is the initials, JC, for Jean Charleau, and the dates 73170, which is when the time period that these were being made. And I should point out that actually Mr. Charleau asked Mr. Inamoto if he could have his name on it too. And Mr. Inamoto was, he wasn't, that wasn't his thing. So, but Charleau was aware that they should be the Charleau Inamoto murals. Correct, but he is the artist and Inamoto was also partly the technician who helped create. Doing the ceramic artwork. Right, okay, next picture. We can look at each one of these panels in succession and there is, as you showed me, a brochure which actually explains what's going on in each one of these depictions. These are striking labor workers at the state capital, the Hawaii state capital, which was a brand new building at that time. And they are hanging out, playing music, dancing, hula, et cetera, but they're also there for their, obviously for their benefit of the workers. Next picture. And in the next picture, we've got a garbage can. Guys carrying garbage cans, these are the garbage workers. And what I was pointing out to you was that in those days when this mural was done, it was traditional to give the garbage workers a gift at Christmas. So between Christmas and New Year's, you'd leave cases of beer for them. And that's- I didn't know about this. Yeah, this is great. There's this very clearly depicted box case of Primo beer that the lady in the red muumu is pointing to as a gift for these guys. And ironically, not long after this was done, Primo beer fell out of favor and then they expected Olympia beer. So this is of a particular time that's no longer there. Next picture. We've got construction workers and I like the fact that they are in a excavation underground and you can see at street level in the back, there's a blue car driving by with two orange traffic cones to show you really what they're actually doing. Next picture. And again, these are the different jobs that this particular union represented. So these are school workers. So there are custodial workers on the left and then there are cafeteria ladies on the right. And down in the corner, if I can point to the right part, right sort of there, there's somebody is this girl with blonde hair is holding an open book or something that I think it's got their names and a moto and charlo. I can't really remember, but it's got dates. Okay, it's got dates as well. Oh, look at that. Yep. Little hidden things. Yes. Yes, Easter eggs, as we say. Okay, next picture. And these are laundry workers, obviously, as you can tell, and I'm puzzled by and do not understand totally why there is a nun right there. I think that would be a great thing to find out. But maybe it's in a hospital. Maybe it was a Catholic hospital. I don't know. Yeah. Next picture. And finally, these are the workers on strike. These are UPW workers on strike. And it shows that they are very dedicated and that they are marching, even though it's cold and rainy and dark, they're out there supporting all the workers. And so, and charlo and enomoto were both labor sympathizers, supporters. Yes. So that's why they would have done this. And of course, I mean, I believe enomoto was a descendant of people that worked on, Oh, he certainly should. Yeah, he would have been very, very sympathetic. Right, right. Okay, next picture. And we're gonna end with a discussion of another charlo piece that was installed at the Alamon Hotel. It went not long after it opened. It was completed and opened in 1970. This is what it looks like even today. And going to the next picture, we're gonna see there's the actual piece. Tell us about it. When the owners at that time of the hotel were getting ready for the opening, they commissioned the eight artists to do original artwork. And we have the list and we have the announcement of what they were hoping to accomplish. And the last person on that list was Mr. Charlo. And it's really interesting. So these are full size drawings of what he proposed the statue would be. And he's working, this is actually a photograph in his house, the Charlo house out at Kahala. But between the time when they announced that these works were being commissioned and the time that this work was installed, the work ended up not being a pool deck, which is where it was commissioned for, but they decided this is too monumental. And so they found a better location. So if you go to the next image, this is actually Charlo working in Mr. Edomoto's studio and working on the clay drums, the statues succession of clay drums. And it's about 10 feet tall. It's very, very monumental. And each one, you showed me the diagram that each one of those sections that you can see a horizontal line through was a separate section and they were placed on top of each other to build this. Like a set of drums being stacked on top of each other. And there were multiple pictures of Charlo working and Mr. Edomoto's son Mark has been very supportive on all of the preservation work we've done on this. Mark remembers Charlo in the studio when he was a kid. So it was a really great, just a collaboration again between Charlo and Edomoto. Go to the next image. This is what's draped in a white sheet or shroud or is the statue. And it's the day of unveiling in August of 1971. And just a big ceremony and just a lot of attention, people standing up on the pool deck, as you can see. Then if you go to the next image, this is the statue and that's Charlo sitting next to it. So you get a sense of the scale. It's just an incredible presence. And we don't know of Charlo attempting another statue. He did a lot of murals. He did a lot of other forms of art. But this is quite an amazing piece. And it was about 2005 that the owners at that point of the hotel decided that it just wasn't appropriate or there was some question about maybe it was damaging the garage. Oh, right. Well, let's go to the next picture because before we discuss that, it got moved. It got moved. Right. It had formed a macaque side of the property and then it got moved to the maca side. Yes, yes. And so it was in a garden and it was easily seen from the street. Oh, yeah. This, if you can imagine, if I was standing next to it, I'm six feet tall but I would be at about where the two hands are on top of each other. It's just a incredible presence. At that time, the hotel donated it to the State Foundation for Culture and the Arts and they agreed to take it on and it's been in storage ever since then. It's really a shame that it's been in storage because it deserves to be out and celebrated and we're supporting a current effort to bring it out of storage and actually make it available again. Well, now, I think what we can point out is that even though it's not currently on exhibit, this is another success story because it's been preserved. It has been saved. It's been preserved, it's been evaluated and it's been assessed as being in very good condition. Which is, again, we haven't lost it and that's one of the beautiful things that we can point to proudly and say, again, it isn't in its final place and we talked about where it possibly could go. There is interest to move it there and I think that'd be a great place. So do you. We won't say what it is because it's not definite. No, it's all a bit more definite. But again, this is one of the success stories rather than a story of loss. It's a story of preservation and Doko Momo is dedicated to preservation. Yes. Now, the reality, of course, is that we cannot save everything. We live in a dynamic and growing urban environment and things are going to be lost. But at the same time, they can also, we can advocate for their being preserved but we also can document them and even if they are lost, we can document them. And make sure the records are kept in. Exactly. So that we know that they did exist. And a great deal of stuff has been lost, particularly for the low-end building because those are the things that are demolished without people getting worked up about a lot. So for example, the diamond head surf and the Lao gardens are not monumental buildings that are unique art pieces. But they're very important for their time period and what they represent. And as I was saying earlier, and we both agree, the fact that they have unique pieces of ceramic art built into them, the fact that that effort was taken, that expense was made, for a low-end building is really remarkable. And that's part of the whole thing. Yeah, and I think a lot of what we're trying to do is make sure we help people look differently and see these things. Exactly, rather than just pass them by. And that's what you were saying at the beginning. You didn't remember the fountain at Alamoana Center because it was a little bit off to the side and it was just there. Well, that brings us to the end of the program. Thank you very much for being with us. That was a very, I thought we had a very, I thought we had to really, we show people a lot of interesting stuff. So thank you for being here. Okay, everybody, thanks for joining us and thanks for being here with us today at Think Tech Hawaii for the Dokomomo show. There'll be more similar shows in the future, so keep watching and until we see you again, aloha.