#Lanai

Lāna‘i City Housing Program Preserves Historic Charm of Era

Preservation Honor Awards Recognizes Lāna‘i City Historic Housing Program for Perpetuating Town Design and Community 4/15/2020: Anyone fortunate enough to be guided through a tour of historic Lāna‘i City knows its charms. The “Pineapple Island” no longer produces pineapple, but the built environment still reflects the design and community memories of the early 20th-century agricultural era. Over the past five years, Pūlama Lāna‘i has engaged in a comprehensive program to preserve, maintain, rehabilitate, reconstruct and replace historic housing within Lāna‘i City. The program includes both treatments for existing buildings and the production of new infill housing. Lāna‘i City was a planned community that followed the urban design principles of the Garden City movement, as adapted and interpreted by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company’s (HAPCo) “Village” planning standards in the early 1920s. The town plan followed the concepts of a central greenspace (Dole Park) with tree-lined streets and avenues, generous yards and setbacks for gardens and vegetation, and designated areas of housing, businesses, civic areas, industry and agriculture. It is considered the first planned community in the Territory of Hawai‘i (1923). Aerial photograph of Lāna‘i City taken on October 23, 1929, looking northwest. Courtesy Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center. Designed by engineer David E. Root and substantially completed by 1924, Lāna‘i City is the last intact extant example of “Garden City” and “Village” planning standards remaining in Maui County, and one of only three in the state (the others are the Hickam and Wheeler Historic Districts on military installations on O‘ahu, constructed in the 1930s-1940s). According to the documentation submitted to nominate the Lāna‘i City historic district to the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places, the town also contains the largest collection of intact plantation period buildings [...]

2020-05-13T14:34:10-10:00April 15th, 2020|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , |

Lāna‘i City (2006)

Photos: Courtesy of Pacific Stock UPDATE: 2015 Article Written By: Katrina Valcourt, HONOLULU Magazine Much has changed on Lāna‘i since the last update we ran in 2006, the biggest, of course, being Larry Ellison’s purchase of 98 percent of the island in 2012. And though he, like previous owner David Murdock of Castle & Cooke, is investing in tourism, Ellison is also preserving historic structures. “All of the stores, all of the original buildings in the Dole Park square built between about 1924 and 1955, have been restored in their fronts, appearance and approach so that they look as they did when they were originally built, but are no longer falling apart,” says Kepā Maly, senior vice president of culture and historic preservation at Pūlama Lāna‘i. “Every community needs to have some type of economic driver. The foundation of that driver on Lāna‘i is our stories, our sense of place. The look of Lāna‘i City is part of that unique attribute.” UPDATE: 2009 The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Lanai City as one of the “11 Most Endangered Historic Places” in 2009 and listed development as the threat. LISTED AS ENDANGERED IN 2006 Article Written By: Michael Keany, HONOLULU Magazine What is it? For 70 years, Lana‘i City was a close-knit community united by a common purpose: pineapple. After buying the island in 1922, James Dole engineered a small plantation town perfectly suited to the new agricultural industry—small enough to have no stoplights, but complete with churches, businesses, entertainment and housing.“I’m continually amazed at the way that original design fostered a sense of community, a sense of place,” says Kepa Maly, a cultural historian and Lanai native. What threatens it? Lanai’s last pineapple crops were harvested in 1992, and Castle & Cooke, which owns almost 98 percent of the island, has turned to tourism and real estate. Change is inevitable, [...]

2017-04-21T01:01:12-10:00November 1st, 2015|Categories: MES Lanai|Tags: , |

Disappearing Lanai – A Pictorial Essay

Preservation in the News: This stunning pictorial and historical account of Lanai will leave you breathless. Disappearing Lanai by: Derek Paiva, Photography by Grant Kaye | Hawaii Magazine - Jun 25, 2015 Lanai has always been the definition of home for Grant Kaye. Of his 36 years, the Oahu-born photographer has been a full time resident of the island for only four—from the days following his birth up until his parents, Robin and Sally, moved the family to Pennsylvania just as Kaye was about to begin school. Now living near Lake Tahoe, Kaye returns several times annually to visit his parents who, a decade ago, finally moved back to retire in the home they long ago bought, moved away from, but always kept on Lanai. Ultimately assuring Kaye could call nowhere else in the world home, however, were the summer vacations he’d spend on Lanai from grade school through his high school graduation—times spent reconnecting with friends, his extended hanai ohana (adopted family) and the island itself. On Lanai, the Pennsylvania kid would revel in days and nights spent spearfishing, camping, beaching and exploring with his summer buddies. Guided and educated by family friend “Uncle” Albert Morita, a game warden who was raised on Lanai, Kaye found the little-populated, largely undeveloped 140-square-mile island an undiscovered country ripe for exploration. “Every trip back, my dad and I would spend as much time as we could with Uncle Albert, who would always want to take us to somewhere that we’d never been before,” remembers Kaye. “His family had lived on [Lanai] forever and he had such a deep love for the island and still does. We’d go to see petroglyphs or a heiau, always someplace different.” Those summers [...]

2017-04-21T01:01:17-10:00July 23rd, 2015|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , |

Community Workshop Scheduled to Revisit Vision for Pearl Harbor Historic Trail

Preservation in the News:  Imagine an 18-mile shoreline trail from Aiea to Nanakuli incorporating historic sites, recreation areas and various other related attractions?  Come to the community meeting and workshop at Aiea Elementary School on Wednesday, July 22 to discuss and help form the vision. Pearl Harbor Historic Trail meeting set By Jayna Omaye, Honolulu Star Advertiser Jul 16, 2015 The vision of the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail took root nearly 15 years ago when Aiea and Pearl City residents helped to compile a master plan for a trail along the shoreline to Nanakuli from Aiea that would host, among other things, improved bicycle and pedestrian paths, boat tours and a cultural learning center. City officials are now making efforts to relaunch the project that seeks to drive economic development and establish historic preservation plans on an 18-mile trail linking neighborhoods to various attractions, historic sites and recreation areas along the old Oahu Railway & Land Co. corridor. The master plan, developed in 2001 through community input and adopted by the City Council in 2003, serves as the basis for the revitalization of the shoreline that currently features a city-run bike path from Pearl Harbor to Waipahu and Ewa Beach, with the hope of extending it into Nanakuli. A long-term goal was to operate a steam train along the entire historic railway by extending a route that the Hawaiian Railway Society currently operates from Ewa Beach to Kahe Point. In 2005, then-Gov. Linda Lingle signed a bill that officially recognized the path from Halawa Landing near the USS Arizona Visitors Center through Waipahu as the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail, which was seen by proponents as a breakthrough in moving forward with the master plan. Officials [...]

2017-04-21T01:01:17-10:00July 20th, 2015|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , |

800 year old Lanai Fishpond to be Restored

Preservation in the News:  Multiple generations come out to help with the restoration of an 800 year old fishpond on the island of Lanai. Nonprofit group to restore ancient Lanai fishpond July 15, 2015 By Associated Press WAILUKU >> A fishpond on the coastline of Lanai that is believed to be 800 years old is being restored this summer by children and adults. The Maui News reports that the nonprofit Lanai Culture & Heritage Center began work to restore the Waiopae fish pond last month with the help from some 140 children and teens. The restoration project is a public-private partnership between the nonprofit and landowner Pulama Lana'i. The group hopes to restore the pond's barrier by building a 2,000-foot long, crescent shaped wall that will be 500 feet from the shore at its farthest point. The restoration project is the first program under a new bill that passed this year which simplified the permitting process for groups applying to restore and maintain Hawaiian fishponds.  

2017-04-21T01:01:17-10:00July 15th, 2015|Categories: Blog|Tags: , , , , , |

Ka‘a Ahupua‘a (2011)

“It is irreparable damage to such a beautiful place in return for very little for our community.” Robin Kaye Photos: Courtesy of Robin Kaye UPDATE: 2011 Public meetings were held on Maui, Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i to gather comments on a "programmatic" environmental impact statement on the Hawaii Inter-island Renewable Energy Program. A traditional cultural properties study of Ka‘a Ahupua‘a was completed in April of 2011 by Kepā and Onaona Maly for The Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center. LISTED AS ENDANGERED IN 2011 Article Written By: Victoria Wiseman, HONOLULU Magazine What Is It? The Landscape of the 20,000-acre Ka’a Ahupua’a on the west side of Lāna‘i is unspoiled and mostly uncharted, with little known about the cultural importance of the area is undeniable: A limited 2011 survey identified 294 cultural features, such as ceremonial sites, petroglyphs, heiau and burial locations. The ahupua’a also serves an important community purpose, providing food to local subsistence hunters and fishers. What Threatens It? Historic preservation and the pursuit of alternative energy are both well-intentioned movements in society. However, not everyone agrees that both can happen in the Ka’ Ahupua’a. In 2008, landowner Castle & Cooke Resorts LLC was permitted to build a 170-turbine, 400-Megawatt wind farm in the ahupua’a. Community group Friends of Lāna‘i is against the project. “It is irreparable damage to such a beautiful place in return for very little for our community,” says Robin Kaye. The construction of the turbines, roads, and power facilities would significantly alter the landscape, and all of the power generated would go to Oahu. The only benefit to Lāna‘i would be a handful of permanent jobs, he says. In 2009, after public input, the Public Utilities Commission decided to reexamine the project [...]

2016-11-17T11:43:22-10:00March 3rd, 2014|Categories: MES Lanai|Tags: , |

Luahiwa Petroglyphs, Kealiakapu ahupua‘a (2009)

Chalking petroglyphs, as shown in the photo, is one of the practices that have damaged these ancient carvings.  Photos: Courtesy of Kepa Maly Article Written By: Jenny Quill, HONOLULU Magazine What is it? Located on a difficult-to-find, 3 acre section of land in central Lāna‘i, Luahiwa is one of Hawai‘i’s most significant Ki‘ipōhaku, or petroglyph, complexes, with close to 1,000 ancient stone carvings etched into the sides of boulders scattered across the slope. According to Kepa Maly, the executive director of the Lāna‘i Culture and Heritage Center, 95 percent of the drawings are of pre-Western-contact forms, including canoes, human shapes, animals, dogs, turtles and processions of men. “The other interesting thing about the complex” says Maly, “is that you can see that it has been used generationally. When one set of images were beginning to fade out due to centuries of exposure to weather, new images were put over them. You can still see the juxtaposing of image over image”. What threatens it? There are several environmental factors: A fire in October 2007 burned through the region, cracking the rocks; soil erosion resulting from the removal of vegetation has undermined the stones. Then there’s the human factor. In recent years, one of the ancient dog images was redrawn as a deer with antlers. People have also crudely carved their names into the boulders, while others have used acrylic, chalk or wax to make the carvings more visible for viewing and recording. What can be done? Maly would like to establish an area for boardwalk that leads to viewing platform outfitted with interpretative signage. This setup would ensure that visitors could still get a glimpse of the ancient stone carvings, and diminish the potential for additional [...]

2017-04-21T01:01:46-10:00March 3rd, 2014|Categories: MES Lanai|Tags: , |
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