2025 Experts Lecture Series:
Conserving Architecture
Wednesdays, January 29 to March 5, 2025 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
Virtual on Zoom
Free, registration required (scroll down to Register for individual lectures)
The series is co-curated and co-sponsored by the UH School of Architecture’s Historic Preservation Graduate Certificate Program and Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
Why Conserve Architecture?
How do we measure and protect what we hold dear? Built culture is an expression of human relationship to place, past and one another. Architecture, emerging out of a specific lens of time and locale, encapsulates shared meaning and weaves us together in a collective experience. Conserving architecture, therefore, is integral to the perpetuation of significant places that act as repositories of our histories, and guides to our individual and cultural identities.
Join us for the 2025 Experts series — this year’s theme will take us on a journey spanning 150 years of Hawaii’s history in an exploration of what it takes to save built sites. The examples highlighted will include one palace, three memorials, two churches and one residence, representing three Islands. Six expert presenters will lead us through their personal efforts to preserve, conserve and perpetuate these significant places.
Architectural conservation is the act of preserving, maintaining, and sometimes restoring historic buildings, structures, or sites to protect their cultural, historical, and aesthetic value. The goal: to ensure these structures retain their historic integrity and significance for current and future generations to learn from and engage with.
“In preserving a building, we are not merely conserving its material form; we are ensuring the continuity of its history, culture, and significance.” ~James Turrell
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
12:00 to 1:00 PM
Architectural Conservation: A Worldwide Perspective
Presenter: John H. Stubbs, Christovich Senior Professor of Practice – Historic Preservation, Tulane University
This series introduction will describe the special niche of architectural conservation, its relationship to the wider field of historic preservation and its relevance to preserving built sites. Peppered throughout will be illustrative examples of international projects from the presenter’s 21 years serving as Vice President for Field Projects at the World Monuments Fund in New York City.
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The views and perspectives shared in this program are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflects the views, policies or positions of Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
12:00 to 1:00 PM
Queen Emma Summer Palace, Honolulu, O‘ahu and
Shikoku 88 Temples Pilgrimage Monument, Hōlualoa, Hawai‘i Island
Presenter: Glenn Mason, FAIA, NCARB, Vice President, MASON
Historic architect Glenn Mason will recount preservation efforts and outcomes for two unique sites:
Queen Emma Summer Palace or Hānaiakamalama, built in 1848, was the secluded mountain-home and summer retreat of Queen Emma of Hawai‘i from 1857 to 1885, her husband King Kamehameha IV and their son, Prince Albert Edward. Listed on both the Hawai‘i State and National Registers of Historic Places, the Palace is a historic landmark, museum, and cultural site preserved by the Daughters of Hawai‘i.
The Shikoku 88 Temples Pilgrimage Monument, built in 1925, is a unique and significant marker of the cultural and religious connection between Japan and Hawai‘i, specifically linking to the Shikoku Pilgrimage, one of Japan’s most famous and revered pilgrimages. It is also a tribute to the Japanese immigrants who brought their religious and cultural practices to the islands.
Both projects received historic preservation grants through Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in partnership with the Freeman Foundation.
VIEW THE PRESENTATION RECORDING BELOW
The views and perspectives shared in this program are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflects the views, policies or positions of Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
12:00 to 1:00 PM
Historic Churches of Maui
Presenter: Katie Stephens, Senior Associate, AHL (Architects Hawai‘i Ltd.)
Historic architect Katie Stephens will describe preservation efforts at two Maui churches including the processes used to assess and determine appropriate treatments, challenges and current status of each project.
Wananalua Church in Hāna, established in 1838, was known as the Church of the “Second Prophecy”. The first church building was made of pili grass and located near Hāna Bay. The building used for worship today was built in 1842 and is made of volcanic rock with a cement of pulverized coral.
Kaʻahumanu Church in Wailuku, built in 1875 by Edward Bailey, exemplifies adaptation of the New England style of architecture brought to Hawai‘i incorporating native materials in the construction.
Wananalua Church and Kaʻahumanu Church are listed in the Hawai‘i State and National Registers of Historic Places. Kaʻahumanu Church was added to Hawai‘i’s Most Endangered Historic Places list in 2013.
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The views and perspectives shared in this program are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflects the views, policies or positions of Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
12:00 to 1:00 PM
Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Presenter: Tonia Moy, Vice President and Director of Preservation at FAI
Historic Architect Tonia Moy will offer an overview of this significant historic site and the many projects she has been engaged with there over the years. Illustrative examples will highlight some of the assessment practices and conservation methods utilized, and the role of consultation in the preservation process.
The memorial constructed in 1962 and dedicated in 1966, was established by American Battle Monuments Commission to honor the sacrifices and achievements of American armed forces in the Pacific during World War II and the Korean War. The memorial grew in 1980 to include the missing of the Vietnam War, and it expanded further in 2012 with the addition of two new pavilions. One pavilion houses an orientation map of the memorial and the other includes two mosaic battle maps depicting the Vietnam War.
The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, O‘ahu, is listed on the Hawai‘i State and National Registers of Historic Places.
Historic Hawai‘i Foundation is a consulting party for proposed preservation projects at the site, as part of the Section 106 process.
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The views and perspectives shared in this program are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflects the views, policies or positions of Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
12:00 to 1:00 PM
Waikīkī War Memorial Natatorium, O‘ahu: New Steps Toward its Preservation
Presenters: Mo Radke, President, Friends of the Natatorium and Jill Radke, historian who researched and developed the “Descendants Project” for the Natatorium.
Presenter Mo Radke will expound on the history of this remarkable World War I memorial and report on ongoing efforts to preserve it, including its current status as an endangered site and extremely significant war memorial.
Dedicated in 1927 to honor 10,000 citizens of Hawai’i who served in World War I, the Waikīkī War Memorial Natatorium was conceived as more than a war memorial. The salt water swimming pool on the beach of Waikīkī once served as a living memorial for people to take part in its long history of indigenous swimming traditions and its Olympic legacy.
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The views and perspectives shared in this program are solely those of the presenters and do not necessarily reflects the views, policies or positions of Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
12:00 to 1:00 PM
Conserving Modern Era Buildings
Presenter: Graham Hart, co-founder of Kokomo Studio, Vice President of Docomomo US Hawaiʻi Chapter, and member of the Hawaiʻi Historic Places Review Board
Presenter Graham Hart will speak about the special challenges of conserving Modern architecture. He will touch upon the Jean and Zohmah Charlot House in Honolulu, Hawaii designed by architect George “Pete” Wimberly and artist Jean Charlot. The house was built in 1958 and is listed on both the Hawaiʻi and National Registers of Historic Places.
VIEW THE PRESENTATION RECORDING BELOW
The views and perspectives shared in this program are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflects the views, policies or positions of Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.