New Manoa gym will serve park and school

By James Gonser
Urban Honolulu Writer

A unique collaboration between the city and the state has provided for joint financing and use of a new $5.78 million multipurpose center at Manoa District Park that will benefit both park users and students from Manoa Elementary School.

Work on a multipurpose center in Manoa is scheduled to be complete in June. Straddling the boundary between Manoa Elementary School and Manoa Park, it will serve both park users and schoolchildren. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"The school is really going to benefit as well as the park," said park director Howard Yoshioka. "I don't know how we got the state and the city to agree on this, but it's great, and hopefully it won't be the last time they agree on something."

"It is a nice win-win for the neighborhood and the school," said Manoa Elementary vice principal Kathryn Yoshida. "We are really excited and looking forward to the completion of the project."

Construction began June 1 and is almost half done, with completion set for June 2002, according to a spokesman for contractor K.D. Construction.

The multipurpose building will include two full-size play courts set between the school's offices and a performing arts area on one side and the city's Parks Department offices, a meeting area and an arts and crafts room on the other side.

Rep. Ed Case, D-23rd (Manoa), said the plan for the project evolved over several years during dozens of public meetings. This is the first time he knows of that the city and state have worked together on such a project.

"It was really kind of revolutionary," Case said. "It is the model of what can be when you get over the usual territorialism and business as usual between state and city relationships."

Case said any form of increased density and development in Manoa is a sensitive issue.

"We brought everybody together and really did a community master plan of the park," Case said. "We asked how do we want the park 10 to 15 years from now? There was a segment of the community that felt that we should not do any improvements, but a clear majority of the community wanted the improvements."

Barbara Lowe, president of Malama O Manoa, a community organization dedicated to preserving, protecting and enhancing the special qualities of Manoa Valley, said the new facility is needed at the busy park.

"People want to keep everything the same, but that is physically impossible," Lowe said. "The sports leagues have grown incredibly. It's not like out on the Leeward and 'Ewa plains where there is room for new parks. Whenever you make a new park you need several acres, so for Manoa it is a matter of improving what facilities we have. There is no way we could expand the park."

Manoa District Park opened in the 1940s, and the current pool and gym were built in the early 1970s. This is the first major upgrade at the park since then.

Manoa Elementary was one of the first English-language schools in the state, opening Oct. 11, 1854, with 18 students in one building. The school was moved to its present site in 1952. Today there are 600 students, with 34 classrooms in five buildings connected by covered walkways.

Yoshida said the school will use the building for physical education classes, plays and presentations and as an alternative site for events — such as the annual May Day celebration — that can be rained out otherwise. A small kitchen area and a kiln will also be available for the school.

Noise and dust from the construction have been kept to a minimum by the contractor, Yoshida said, and she meets frequently with an engineer to update progress. Some teachers are also using the construction as a learning opportunity, she said, bringing their classes out to observe the work.

"It is being using to teach kids about time line and construction and all the planning that is involved," she said.

One of the original school classroom buildings was torn down to make way for the new gym.

"It was an old, wood building that was my first grade classroom, said Sen. Brian Taniguchi, D-11th (McCully, Mo'ili'ili, Manoa). "It was a portable when I was there. You could see the light right through the floor boards."

Taniguchi played in sports leagues in the park when he was young, and now his children are members of youth league teams.

"My kids play baseball and we are in the park a lot," Taniguchi said. "Park usage is very heavy. There is baseball, soccer, football, swimming, basketball and volleyball. The basketball league at Manoa is so crowded they have had to turn away people. Even the baseball league was turning away people."

With only one covered public court in all of Manoa, basketball league teams have no place to practice when it rains.

"Manoa has the largest boys basketball league on O'ahu, probably in the state, and you have one covered court," Taniguchi said. "There was talk of canceling games, but with the new gym, we think the problem will be solved."

The park has also benefited from other recent work, with new lights, ventilator fans, sound insulation and exterior roof work on the old gym. Improvements were recently made to the outdoor basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, and an additional parking lot was built this year.

At the pool, the old, corroded lifeguard stands are about to be replaced with portable units.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.