Editorial
Estate has second chance in Waikiki

In an editorial published on these pages in 1972, entitled "A Waikiki Plus," we celebrated the Bishop Estate's plans for a new shopping center on its Kalakaua Avenue property fronting the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

The estate said it had thrown out plans for a high rise development on its six-acre site and instead would go for a low-rise design which would open vistas of the Royal's great lawns and the sea beyond. An international design competition had been convened to come up with the best and brightest ideas for a project that would revitalize Waikiki and set a design standard for decades to come.

Well, it is now nearly three decades later and the estate, now known as Kamehameha Schools, has a second chance to make that vision a reality. According to staff writer Andrew Gomes, the estate has plans under way for a major renovation of the center.

That's a good idea for more reasons than one. Because for all the flowery rhetoric of those days, the project that rose out of that effort fell — by many accounts — far short of the dream .

In part because it became impossible to put parking underground and in part because of a desire to maximize the commercial potential of this world-class site, the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center that emerged was anything but a design triumph.

Despite quality features and a lot of money spent on award-winning landscaping, the project ended up looking more like a bunker than anything else. Glimpses through to the Royal or the ocean became harder to find rather than easier.

The mall became known as Fort Bishop or Fort Kalakaua to its critics.

Louis Kau, who was involved in the original construction of the mall, told Gomes that in hindsight it would have been better as a 2 1/2-story height with more open spaces.

Waikiki is rapidly developing. This property can — and should be — the crown jewel of redevelopment in the heart of the resort area. No one suggests that the shopping center can or should be torn down.

But now there's a chance to open it up, restore vistas to the sea, create some green breathing spaces and some human-scale places where visitors and residents can meet.

In short, it is time to make that long-ago vision a reality.