UH students envision college town
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Give University of Hawai'i architecture students the challenge of designing a "college town" and they will create the ultimate. Move a freeway off-ramp? No problem. Push the Stan Sheriff Center to the other side of the lower campus? In a heartbeat. Create a monorail system and underground parking complex? Of course.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
For a project that was all about dreams and possibilities, four teams in the senior architecture class came up with a raft of ideas that bear consideration by university planners as UH discusses how to create a vibrant college town surrounding the campus over the next few years.
Architecture students Lucy Wong, Vitou Tang, Vanessa Ko and Ron Compton share their vision of Mo'ili'ili and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus. Professor Jack Sidener plans to share his students' ideas with the university administration.
The whole idea, said professor Jack Sidener, was to involve the School of Architecture in the strategic planning process. It puts young minds to work on the same issues that will face university planners and at the same time answers one key question: How do you maintain the integrity of Mo'ili'ili while revitalizing the area as a college town and somehow linking it to campus?
"Aim to develop a strongly defined, pleasant and active linkage between town and gown, between the Campus Center and the Mo'ili'ili shopping core," Sidener instructed his students.
While most of the students designed as if money were no object — they were told not to consider cost — one group emphasized renovating and using existing buildings. "We were trying to keep demolition down," said Gerald Pascual, 25. "Trying to make it cost-effective, with a strong use of landscape and water as a focal point."
"The biggest issue was trying to please everybody in the community and at the school," said Bryan Miyasaki, 22.
But others had no qualms about taking down much of what was there to rebuild the whole central section around the King/University intersection, using glass-walled buildings to bring the inside out and vice versa. One group imagined the whole area as kind of "incubator space" for small business, with students a crucial part of projects in their area of study.
The student design projects will be on display at the Architecture Building Gallery (on the second floor by the elevators) from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays until May 20.
That brought raves from architecture dean Raymond Yeh. "This is not just a physical concept, it's an implementation concept," Yeh said.
On display
Another group envisioned a monorail coming into the area with a cloverleaf down by Kapi'olani Boulevard that ends up at a central rail/bus and pedestrian depot near Varsity Theater and the bank, which would become the new film school.
"With all these exits along King Street, the transportation is really hard to solve," admitted Ron Compton, 33.
"We were trying to find one central node access," said Lucy Wong, 22, who is working toward a doctorate in architecture.
Other student ideas include:
- Widening Mo'ili'ili sidewalks and planting trees to make the streets more people-friendly.
- Making the quarry the focal point of town interaction with a giant water feature on the existing Cooke Field (they'd create a new field further diamondhead) to encourage walkers to explore the area.
- Mixing dorms with residential areas as part of Mo'ili'ili, or building dorms around the edges of the lower campus area.
- Building an underground parking area to solve parking problems in Mo'ili'ili with a central bus/rail depot as part of it.
- Using the kind of "people-movers" found in airports to move people from Mo'ili'ili through new underpasses to the quarry.
- Replacing the Puck's Alley complex with an upgraded shopping complex with walking access from the busy corner of King and University into the center of a redesigned/rebuilt commercial area. Or turn it into a hotel/convention center for the campus.
- Building two more floors on the parking garage, turning them into a shopping mall with restaurants. This would increase financial opportunities for the university by keeping sports fans in the area before and after games to shop and eat.
- Improving and increasing the use of small shuttle buses throughout campus, and to and from dorms.
- Creating a food court not just for students, but the whole community.
- Building water areas that cool and integrate the campus.
- Putting a hotel in the area and diverting Manoa Stream through the lobby. The structure would be for academic conventions, and would include galleries.
Architecture dean Yeh said the exercise has been a "wonderful" way to involve bright young people who spend time talking to the community and doing basic research about needs.
As "out of the box" as some of the ideas are, Sidener plans to pass them on to the university administration for consideration. When the strategic plan is complete in May, said UH President Evan Dobelle, discussions with the community on the "college town" vision will begin.
