#saving places #HistoricHawaii

The History & Architecture The King David Kalākaua Building in Honolulu is a government building at 335 Merchant Street originally built for the U.S. Post Office, Customhouse, and Courthouse. It served as the official seat of administration for the Territory of Hawaii. The building sits opposite Iolani Palace on the previous site of the opera house. It was designed in 1918 by New York architecture firm York and Sawyer in cooperation with local architects, and built from 1921 to 1922 in the Mission/Spanish Revival style. An addition to the building for the Treasury Department was started in 1929 and opened in 1931. Design features include terracotta tile, adobe and stucco walls, courtyards, arches, arcades, towers, and bell-gables.  Hawai‘i-based architects included a melding of outdoor-indoor spaces, skylights, local decorative elements, and adaptations to accommodate trade winds and maximize air flow. Some of its significant architectural features include its asymmetrical composition and cluster design, with structures joined by the exterior arcade and corridors. A flat-roofed arcade wraps from Merchant to Richards Streets around the mauka side of the building and leads into a corridor lined with postboxes—creating a seamless transition between the outside and inside. Neoclassical columns with stylized hibiscus blossoms give a nod to Hawai‘i. Inside, a spacious lobby with a marble double staircase establishes a sense of openness, which is matched by the wide main corridors on the second and third floors. The building is set back from the street behind a lawn with tropical trees and foliage. Although its stucco and terracotta style contrasts with the more ornate Neoclassical styles of its neighbors Iolani Palace and Ali‘iōlani Hale, its Spanish Colonial Revival vernacular links it with the nearby Honolulu Hale complex. Its current use is to house the offices [...]